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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


GIFT  OF 

PROFESSOR 
LEON  J.  RICHARDSON 


LJ  H  \C  H  f)  7?DSoN 
Orp  DO  5,A*>'/\'FM  F 


SELECTIONS 

BY  THE  EDITOR  OF  "DAILY   STRENGTH 
FOR   DAILY   NEEDS." 


QUIET  HOURS.  Poems  of  Religion  and  Nature. 
First  and  Second  Series.  $1.00  each.  Both  series 
in  one  volume,  $1.50. 

SUNSHINE  IN  THE  SOUL.  Poems  to  help  and 
cheer.  First  and  Second  Series.  50  cents  each. 
Both  in  one,  $1.00. 

SURSUM    CORDA.     Hymns  of  Comfort.     $1.25. 

THE    BLESSED    LIFE.     Favorite  Hymns.     $1.00. 

HEROIC  BALLADS.  Poems  of  Bravery  and  Ad- 
venture.    $1.00.     Illustrated  edition,  $2.00. 


JJTfje  fflsafstrom  Series* 

PRICE,  FIFTY  CENTS  EACH. 

Selections  from  Thomas  a  Kempls. 

Selections  from  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus. 

Selections  from   Epictetus. 

The  Wisdom  of  Jesus,  the  Son  of  Sirach  ; 
or,   Ecclesiasticus. 

The  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  Other  Selec- 
tions from  the  Apocrypha. 

Selections  from  John  Tauler. 

Selections  from   Fenelon. 

Socrates  [the  Apology  and  Crito  of  Plato]. 

Socrates  [the  Phaedo  of  Plato]. 


ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  Publishers, 
BOSTON. 


^elections 


FROM 


EPICTETUS. 


BOSTON: 
Roberts    <J5rot|>crK 

1898. 


Copyright,   1877, 
By  Roberts  Brothers. 


GIFT 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


£5R55 


PREFACE. 


THIS  little  volume,  which  contains  about 
one-fifth  of  the  whole  of  Epictetus,  is  de- 
signed to  bring  together  the  most  useful  and 
striking  passages  in  a  form  convenient  for  ready 
use.  It  cannot  give  all  the  best  in  so  small  com- 
pass, but  those  who  miss  favorite  passages  must 
remember  that  it  is  difficult  to  choose  where  so 
much  is  good,  and  yet  so  large  a  portion  must 
be  rejected  for  want  of  space.  The  numbers  in 
parentheses  at  the  beginning  of  the  chapters  re- 
fer to  the  numbers  of  the  original  chapters.  This 
book  is  abridged  from  the  translation  of  Mr.  T. 
W.  Higginson,  by  his  kind  permission  and  that 
of  his  publishers.  I  cannot  do  better  than  to 
quote  from  his  own  preface. 

"Epictetus  was  probably  born  at  Hierapolis 
in  Phrygia,  and  he  lived  at  Rome  in  the  first 
century  of  our  era,  as  the  slave  of  Epaphroditus, 
a  freedman  of  Nero.  Origen  preserves  an  an- 
ecdote of  Epictetus,  that,  when  his  master  once 
put  his  leg  in  the  torture,  his  philosophic  slave 

836 


IV  PREFACE. 

quietly  remarked,  'You  will  break  my  leg;1 
and,  when  this  presently  happened,  he  added, 
in  the  same  tone,  '  Did  I  not  tell  you  so  ? '  He 
afterwards  became  free,  and  lived  very  frugally 
at  Rome,  teaching  philosophy.  Simplicius  says 
that  the  whole  furniture  of  his  house  consisted 
of  a  bed,  a  cooking- vessel,  and  an  earthen  lamp. 

"  When  Domitian  banished  the  philosophers 
from  Rome,  Epictetus  retired  to  Nicopolis,  a 
city  of  Epirus,  where  he  taught  as  before,  until 
he  was  an  old  man.  He  still  lived  in  the  same 
frugal  way,  his  only  companions  being  a  young 
child,  whom  he  adopted,  in  the  later  years  of  his 
life,  because  its  parents  abandoned  it,  and  a 
woman  whom  he  employed  as  its  nurse.  He 
suffered  from  extreme  lameness.  After  Hadrian 
oecame  Emperor  (a.d.  117),  Epictetus  was 
treated  with  favor,  but  probably  did  not  return 
to  Rome.  In  these  later  years  of  his  life,  his 
discourses  were  written  down  by  his  disciple, 
Arrian,  a  man  of  the  highest  character,  both  as 
a  philosopher  and  as  an  historian.  But  four  of 
the  original  eight  books  remain.  The  date  of 
Epictetus's  death  is  entirely  unknown." 

M.  W.  T. 


CONTENTS. 


Cfje  IBtscottrses  of  Eyittttu*. 

BOOK  I. 
Chap.  Pag* 

I.    Of  what  is  in  our  own  Power  .    .  i 

II.    Of  Priscus  Helvidius 3 

III.  Of  our  descent  from  God  ....  5 

IV.  What  is  Progress  ? 6 

V.    Of  Providence 9 

VI.    Of  Nobility  of  Mind 12 

VII.    Of  Contentment  with  Things  that 

are 15 

VIII.    Of  Forbearance 17 

IX.    Of  the  Divine  Supervision     ...  18 

X.    What  Philosophy  promises     .    .    .  19 

XI.    Concerning  Providence 20 

XII.    Of  being  Unconquerable    ....  22 

XIII.  Of  Difficulties 24 

XIV.  Of  Superiority  to  Fear  of  Death  25 


VI  CONTENTS. 

BOOK  II. 
Chap.  Pagb 

I.    Of  Learning  and  Doing 29 

II.    Of  Tranquillity  ........  30 

III.  How  Nobleness  of  Mind  may  be 

consistent  with  Prudence  ...  32 

IV.  Of  Circumstances 34 

V.    In  the  Likeness  of  God 36 

VI.    The  Duties  of  different  relations 

in  Life 39 

VII.    The  Will  in  Harmony  with  Events  42 

VIII.    Of  Mistaken  Impressions    ....  46 

IX.    Of  True  Education 50 

X.    Of  the  Power  of  Habit 52 

XL    Of  Inconsistency 55 

XII.    Of  Friendship 59 

BOOK  III. 

I.    The  Divine  Message    ......  62 

II.    Concerning  those  who  plead  Sick- 
ness    63 

III.  Of  the  Semblances  of  Things    .    .  67 

IV.  What  is  Wealth? 68 

V.    How  to  bear  Sickness 70 

VI.    What  is  Solitude? 73 


CONTENTS.  Vll 
Chap.                                                                                  Pack 

VII.    Of  the  Daily  Life  of  a  Philosopher  76 

VIII.    Gain  from  every  thing      ....  78 

IX.    Of  the  Cynic  Philosophy.    ...  80 
X.    That  we  ought  not  to  be  affected 

BY  THINGS  NOT  IN  OUR  OWN  POWER  84 

XI.    Concerning    those    who    are    in 

dread  of  Want     ••••••  91 

BOOK  IV. 

I.    Of  Freedom 96 

II.    Of  Resignation  to  the  Will  of  God  98 

III.  Of  Complaisance 103 

IV.  Concerning  those  who  desire   a 

Life  of  Repose 105 

V.    Of  Good  Will  to  Men no 

VI.    Of  Fearlessness,  and  Humility    .  112 

VII.    Of  Preparation  for  Death  .    .    .  115 

VIII.    Of  Taking  Pains 118 

IX.    Of  being  Communicative  ....  120 


The  Enchiridion,  or  Manual 122 

Fragments  of  Epictetus.    From  Stob^eus, 

Antonius,  and  Maximus 140 


ARRIAN   TO    LUCIUS   GELLIUS 
WISHETH    ALL   HAPPINESS. 


I  NEITHER  composed  the  Discourses  of 
Epictetus  in  such  a  manner  as  things 
of  this  nature  are  commonly  composed,  nor 
did  I  myself  produce  them  to  public  view, 
any  more  than  I  composed  them.  But 
whatever  sentiments  I  heard  from  his  own 
mouth,  the  very  same  I  endeavored  to  set 
down  in  the  very  same  words,  so  far  as  pos- 
sible, and  to  preserve  as  memorials  for  my 
own  use  of  his  manner  of  thinking  and 
freedom  of  speech. 

These  Discourses  are  such  as  one  per- 
son would  naturally  deliver  from  his  own 
thoughts,  extempore,  to  another ;  not  such  as 
he  would  prepare  to  be  read  by  numbers 
afterwards.  Yet,  notwithstanding  this,  I 
cannot  tell  how,  without  either  my  consent 


X  ARRIAN   TO    LUCIUS   GELLIUS,    ETC. 

or  knowledge,  they  have  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  public.  But  it  is  of  little  con- 
sequence to  me,  if  I  do  not  appear  an  able 
writer,  and  of  none  to  Epictetus,  if  any  one 
treats  his  Discourses  with  contempt;  since 
it  was  very  evident,  even  when  he  uttered 
them,  that  he  aimed  at  nothing  more  than 
to  excite  his  hearers  to  virtue.  If  they  pro- 
duce that  one  effect,  they  have  in  them 
what,  I  think,  philosophical  discourses  ought 
to  have.  And,  should  they  fail  of  it,  let  the 
readers  however  be  assured  that,  when  Epic- 
tetus himself  pronounced  them,  his  audience 
could  not  help  being  affected  in  the  very 
manner  he  intended  they  should.  If  by 
themselves  they  have  less  efficacy,  perhaps 
it  is  my  fault,  or  perhaps  it  is  unavoidable. 

Farewell. 


%\t  ©tscourses  of  Epictetus* 


BOOK    I. 
CHAPTER   I.    (i.) 

OF  WHAT  IS  IN   OUR  OWN  POWER. 

WHAT  says  Zeus  ?  "  O  Epictetus,  if  it 
were  possible,  I  had  made  this  little 
body  and  property  of  thine  free,  and  not 
liable  to  hindrance.  But  now  do  not  mis- 
take ;  it  is  not  thy  own,  but  only  a  finer 
mixture  of  clay.  Since,  then,  I  could  not 
give  thee  this,  I  have  given  thee  a  certain 
portion  of  myself;  this  faculty  of  exerting 
the  powers  of  pursuit  and  avoidance,  of 
desire  and  aversion,  and,  in  a  word,  the  use 
of  the  appearances  of  things.  Taking  care 
of  this  point,  and  making  what  is  thy  own 
to  consist  in  this,  thou  wilt  never  be  re- 
strained, never  be  hindered ;  thou  wilt  not 
groan,  wilt  not  complain,  wilt  not  flatter  any 


2  THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

one.  How  then  !  Do  all  these  advantages 
seem  small  to  thee  ?  Heaven  forbid  !  Let 
them  suffice  thee  then,  and  thank  the  Gods." 

When  the  weather  doth  not  happen  to 
be  fair  for  sailing,  we  sit  in  distress  and 
gaze  out  perpetually. 

"  Which  way  is  the  wind  ? " 

"North." 

"  What  do  we  want  of  that  ?  When  will 
the  West  blow  ?  " 

"  When  it  pleases,  friend,  or  when  ^Eolus 
pleases ;  for  Zeus  has  not  made  you  dispen- 
ser of  the  winds,  but  ^Eolus." 

"  What,  then,  is  to  be  done  ? " 

"To  make  the  best  of  what  is  in  our 
power,  and  to  take  the  rest  as  it  occurs." 

"  And  how  does  it  occur  ?  " 

"  As  it  pleases  God." 

I  must  die,  and  must  I  die  groaning 
too?  —  Be  fettered.  Must  I  be  lamenting 
too  ?  —  Exiled.  And  what  hinders  me, 
then,  but  that  I  may  go  smiling,  and  cheer- 
ful, and  serene?  —  "Betray  a  secret."  — 
I  will  not  betray  it ;  for  this  is  in  my  own 
power.  —  "  Then  I  will  fetter  you."  —  What 
do  you  say,  man  ?  Fetter  me  ?  You  will 
fetter  my  leg  ;  but  not  Zeus  himself  can  get 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.  3 

the  better  of  my  free-will.  —  "I  will  throw 
you  into  prison ;  I  will  behead  that  paltry 
body  of  yours."  —  Did  I  ever  tell  you,  that 
1  alone  had  a  head  not  liable  to  be  cut  off  ? 
These  things  ought  philosophers  to  study  ; 
these  ought  they  daily  to  write ;  and  in  these 
to  exercise  themselves. 


CHAPTER  II.     (2.) 

OF  PRISCUS   HELVIDIUS. 

W  THEN  Vespasian  had  sent  to  Priscus 
V  V     Helvidius  to  forbid  his  going  to  the 

Senate,  he  answered,  "  It  is  in  your  power 

to   prevent   my  continuing  a  senator;  but, 

while  I  am  one,  I  must  go." 

*  Well,  then,  at  least  be  silent  there." 
"  Do  not  ask  my  opinion,  and  I  will  be 

silent." 

"  But  I  must  ask  it." 

"  And  I  must  speak  what  appears  to  me 

to  be  right." 

"  But  if  you  do,  I  will  put  you  to  death." 
"When  did  I  ever  tell  you  that  I  was 


4  THE    DISCOURSES    OF   EPICTETUS. 

immortal  ?  You  will  do  your  part,  and  1 
mine ;  it  is  yours  to  kill,  and  mine  to  die 
intrepid ;  yours  to  banish,  mine  to  depart 
untroubled." 

What  good,  then,  did  Priscus  do,  who  was 
but  a  single  person  ?  Why,  what  good  does 
the  purple  do  to  the  garment  ?  *  What  but 
to  be  beautiful  in  itself,  and  to  set  a  good 
example  to  the  rest  ? 

Only  consider  at  what  price  you  sell  your 
own  free  will,  O  man  !  if  only  that  you  may 
not  sell  it  for  a  trifle.  The  highest  great- 
ness and  excellence  perhaps  seem  to  belong 
to  others,  to  such  as  Socrates.  Why,  then, 
as  we  are  born  with  a  like  nature,  do  not 
all,  or  the  greater  number,  become  such  as 
he?  Why,  are  all  horses  swift?  Are  all 
dogs  sagacious  ?  What,  then,  because  my 
gifts  are  humble,  shall  I  neglect  all  care  of 
myself  ?  Heaven  forbid !  Epictetus  may 
not  surpass  Socrates ;  granted :  but  could 
I  overtake  him,  it  might  be  enough  for  me. 
I  shall  never  be  Milo,  and  yet  I  do  not  neg- 
lect my  body;  nor  Crcesus,  and  yet  I  do 
not  neglect  my  property ;    nor   should  we 

*  An  allusion  to  the  purple  border  of  the  dress 
of  the  Roman  nobility. 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.  5 

omit  any  effort,  from  a  despair  of  arriving 
at  the  highest. 


CHAPTER  III.    (3.) 

OF  OUR  DESCENT  FROM  GOD. 

IF  a  person  could  be  persuaded  of  this 
principle  as  he  ought,  that  we  are  all 
originally  descended  from  God,  and  that  he 
is  the  father  of  men  and  gods ;  I  conceive 
he  would  never  think  of  himself  meanly  or 
ignobly.  Suppose  Caesar  were  to  adopt  you, 
there  would  be  no  bearing  your  haughty 
looks ;  and  will  you  not  feel  ennobled  on 
knowing  yourself  to  be  the  son  of  God? 
Yet,  in  fact,  we  are  not  ennobled. 

But  having  two  things  united  in  our  com- 
position, a  body  in  common  with  the  brutes, 
and  reason  in  common  with  the  gods,  many 
incline  to  this  unhappy  and  mortal  kindred, 
and  only  some  few  to  that  which  is  happy 
and  divine.  And  as  of  necessity  every  one 
must  treat  each  particular  thing  according 
to  the  notions  he  forms  about  it,  so  those 
few   who   suppose  that  they  are  made  for 


O  THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS. 

faith  and  honor  and  a  wise  use  of  things 
will  never  think  meanly  or  ignobly  concern- 
ing themselves.  But  with  the  multitude  the 
case  is  contrary  ;  "  For  what  am  I  ?  A  poor 
contemptible  man,  with  this  miserable  flesh 
of  mine?"  Miserable  indeed.  But  you 
have  likewise  something  better  than  this 
poor  flesh.  Why,  then,  overlooking  that, 
do  you  pine  away  in  attention  to  this  ? 


CHAPTER   IV.     (4.) 

WHAT  IS  PROGRESS? 

WHERE  doth  your  work  lie  ?  In  learn- 
ing what  to  seek  and  what  to  shun, 
that  you  may  neither  be  disappointed  of  the 
one,  nor  incur  the  other ;  in  practising  how  to 
pursue  and  how  to  avoid,  that  you  may  not  be 
liable  to  fail ;  in  practising  intellectual  assent 
and  doubt,  that  you  may  not  be  liable  to  be 
deceived.  These  are  the  first  and  most  nec- 
essary things.  But  if  you  merely  seek,  in 
trembling  and  lamentation,  to  keep  away  all 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF   EPICTETUS.  J 

possible  ills,  what  real  progress  have  you 
made  ? 

Never  make  your  life  to  consist  in  one 
thing,  and  yet  seek  progress  in  another. 

Where  is  progress,  then  ? 

If  any  of  you,  withdrawing  himself  from 
externals,  turns  to  his  own  will,  to  train  and 
perfect,  and  render  it  conformable  to  na- 
ture ;  noble,  free,  unrestrained,  unhindered, 
faithful,  humble ;  if  he  hath  learnt,  too,  that 
whoever  desires  or  shuns  things  beyond  his 
own  power,  can  neither  be  faithful  nor  free, 
but  must  necessarily  take  his  chance  with 
them,  must  necessarily,  too,  be  subject  to 
others,  to  such  as  can  procure  or  prevent 
what  he  desires  or  shuns  ;  if,  rising  in  the 
morning,  he  observes  and  keeps  to  these 
rules  ;  bathes  regularly,  eats  frugally  ;  and 
to  every  subject  of  action  applies  the  same 
fixed  principles,  —  if  a  racer  to  racing,  if  an 
orator  'to  oratory :  this  is  he  who  truly  makes 
progress  ;  this  is  he  who  hath  not  labored  in 
vain. 

The  only  real  thing  is,  to  study  how  to 
rid  life  of  lamentation  and  complaint,  and 
Alas  1  and  I  am  undone,  and  misfortune  and 
failure  ;  and  to  learn  what  death,  what  exile, 


8  THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

what  a  prison,  what  poison  is  ;  that  he  may 
be  able  to  say  in  a  prison,  like  Socrates, 
"  My  dear  Crito,  if  it  thus  pleases  the  gods, 
thus  let  it  be ; "  and  not,  "  Wretched  old 
man,  have  I  kept  my  gray  hairs  for  this  ? " 
Of  what  service,  then,  is  Chrysippus  *  to 
us  ?  To  teach  you  that  those  things  are  not 
false  on  which  true  prosperity  and  peace 
depend.  "  Take  my  books,  and  you  will  see 
how  true  and  conformable  to  nature  those 
things  are  which  give  me  peace."  How 
great  a  happiness  !  And  how  great  the 
benefactor  who  shows  the  way !  To  Trip- 
tolemus  t  all  men  have  raised  temples  and 
altars,  because  he  gave  us  a  milder  kind  of 
food ;  but  to  him  who  hath  discovered  and 
brought  to  light  and  communicated  the  truth 
to  all ;  the  means,  not  of  living  merely,  but 
of  living  well ;  who  among  you  ever  raised 
an  altar  or  a  temple,  or  dedicated  a  statue, 
or  who  worships  God  in  his  name?  We 
offer  sacrifices  in  memory  of  those  who  have 

*  Chrysippus  was  regarded  as  the  highest  author- 
ity among  the  later  Stoics. 

t  Triptolemus  was  said  to  have  introduced  agri- 
culture and  vegetable  food  among  men,  under  the 
guidance  of  Ceres. 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF   EPICTETUS.  9 

given  us  corn  and  the  vine ;  and  shall  we 
not  give  thanks  to  God  for  those  who  have 
nurtured  such  fruit  in  the  human  breast; 
even  the  truth  which  makes  us  blessed  ? 


CHAPTER  V.     (6,  8.) 

OF  PROVIDENCE. 

FROM  every  event  that  happens  in  the 
world  it  is  easy  to  celebrate  Provi- 
dence, if  a  person  hath  but  these  two  qual- 
ities in  himself;  a  faculty  of  considering 
what  happens  to  each  individual,  and  a 
grateful  temper.  Without  the  first,  he  will 
not  perceive  the  usefulness  of  things  which 
happen  ;  and  without  the  other  he  will  not 
be  thankful  for  them. 

You  take  a  journey  to  Olympia  to  behold 
the  work  of  Phidias,  and  each  of  you  thinks 
it  a  misfortune  to  die  without  a  knowledge 
of  such  things  ;  and  will  you  have  no  incli- 
nation to  see  and  understand  those  works 
for  which  there  is  no  need  to  take  a  journey ; 
but  which  are  ready  and  at  hand,  even  to 


IO        THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

those  who  bestow  no  pains  !  Will  you  never 
perceive  what  you  are,  or  for  what  you  were 
born,  or  for  what  purpose  you  are  admitted 
to  behold  this  spectacle  ? 

But  there  are  in  life  some  things  unpleas- 
ant and  difficult 

And  are  there  none  at  Olympia?  Are 
not  you  heated  ?  Are  not  you  crowded  ? 
Are  not  you  without  good  conveniences  for 
bathing  ?  Are  not  you  wet  through,  when  it 
happens  to  rain  ?  Do  you  not  have  uproar 
and  noise  and  other  disagreeable  circum- 
stances ?  But  I  suppose,  by  comparing  all 
these  with  the  merit  of  the  spectacle,  you 
support  and  endure  them. 

Well ;  and  have  you  not  received  faculties 
by  which  you  may  support  every  event  ? 
Have  you  not  received  greatness  of  soul  ? 
Have  you  not  received  a  manly  spirit? 
Have  you  not  received  patience  ?  What 
signifies  to  me  any  thing  that  happens,  while 
my  soul  is  above  it?  What  shall  disconcert 
or  trouble  or  appear  grievous  to  me  ?  Shall 
I  not  use  my  powers  to  that  purpose  for 
which  I  received  them  ;  but  lament  and 
groan  at  every  casualty  ? 

Do  you  consider  the  faculties  you  have 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.  II 

and,  after  taking  a  view  of  them,  say,  "  Bring 
on  me  now,  O  Zeus,  what  difficulty  thou 
wilt,  for  I  have  faculties  granted  me  by  thee, 
and  powers  by  which  I  may  win  honor  from 
every  event." —  No  ;  but  you  sit  trembling, 
for  fear  this  or  that  should  happen,  and 
lamenting  and  mourning,  and  groaning  at 
what  doth  happen ;  and  then  you  accuse  the 
gods.  For  what  is  the  consequence  of  such 
a  baseness  but  impiety  ?  And  yet  God  hath 
not  only  granted  these  faculties,  by  which 
we  may  bear  every  event,  without  being  de- 
pressed or  broken  by  it ;  but,  like  a  good 
prince  and  a  true  father,  hath  placed  their 
exercise  above  restraint,  compulsion,  or 
hindrance,  and  wholly  within  our  own  con- 
trol ;  nor  hath  he  reserved  a  power,  even  to 
himself,  of  hindering  or  restraining  them. 

Having  these  things  free,  and  your  own, 
will  you  not  use  them,  nor  consider  what 
you  have  received,  nor  from  whom  ?  But 
you  sit  groaning  and  lamenting,  some  of 
you,  blind  to  him  who  gave  them,  and  not 
acknowledging  your  benefactor ;  and  others 
basely  turn  themselves  to  complaints  and 
accusations  against  God  !  Yet  I  undertake 
to  show  you,  that  you  have  means  and  pew- 


12         THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS. 

ers  to  exhibit  greatness  of  soul  and  a  manly 
spirit ;  but  what  occasion  you  have  to  find 
fault  and  complain,  do  you  show  me,  if  you 
can. 

If  you  ask  me,  what  is  the  good  of  man; 
I  know  not  where  it  lies,  save  in  dealing 
wisely  with  the  phenomena  of  existence. 


CHAPTER  VI.    (9.) 

OF   NOBILITY   OF   MIND. 

SHALL  kinship  to  Caesar,  or  any  other  of 
the  great  at  Rome,  enable  a  man  to 
live  secure,  above  contempt,  and  void  of  all 
fear  whatever ;  and  shall  not  the  having 
God  for  our  maker  and  father  and  guar- 
dian free  us  from  griefs  and  alarms  ? 

One  would  think  that  you  would  need  an 
instructor,  not  to  guard  you  from  thinking 
too  meanly  or  ignobly  of  yourselves ;  but 
that  his  business  would  be  to  take  care,  lest 
there  be  young  men  of  such  a  spirit  that, 
knowing  their  affinity  to  the  gods,  and  that 
we  are,  as  it  were,  fettered  by  the  body  and 


THE    DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.         1 3 

its  possessions,  and  by  so  many  other  things 
as  are  thus  made  needful  for  the  daily  pur- 
suits of  life,  they  should  resolve  to  throw 
them  all  off,  as  both  troublesome  and  use- 
less, and  depart  to  their  divine  kindred. 

This  is  the  work,  if  any,  that  ought  to  em- 
ploy your  master  and  preceptor,  if  you  had 
one,  that  you  should  come  to  him  and  say : 
"  Epictetus,  we  can  no  longer  bear  being 
tied  down  to  this  poor  body ;  feeding  and 
resting,  and  cleaning  it,  and  vexed  with  so 
many  low  cares  on  its  account.  Are  not 
these  things  indifferent  and  nothing  to  us ; 
and  death  no  evil?  Are  we  not  of  kindred 
to  God ;  and  did  we  not  come  from  him  ? 
Suffer  us  to  go  back  thither  from  whence 
we  came  ;  suffer  us  at  length  to  be  delivered 
from  these  fetters  that  bind  and  weigh  us 
down.  Here  thieves  and  robbers,  courts 
and  tyrants,  claim  power  over  us  through 
the  body  and  its  possessions.  Suffer  us  to 
show  them  that  they  have  no  power." 

And,  in  this  case,  it  would  be  my  part  to 
answer :  "  My  friends,  wait  for  God  till  he 
shall  give  the  signal,  and  dismiss  you  from 
this  service ;  then  return  to  him.  For  the 
present,  be  content  to  remain  at  this  post, 


14        THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

where  he  has  placed  you.  The  time  of  your 
abode  here  is  short  and  easy  to  such  as  are 
disposed  like  you ;  for  what  tyrant,  what 
robber,  what  thief  or  what  court  can  be  for- 
midable to  those  who  thus  count  for  nothing 
the  body  and  its  possessions  ?  Stay,  nor 
foolishly  depart." 

Thus  ought  the  case  to  stand  between 
a  preceptor  and  ingenuous  young  men. 
But  how  stands  it  now  ?  The  preceptor  has 
no  life  in  him  ;  and  you  have  none.  When 
you  have  had  enough  to-day,  you  sit  weep- 
ing about  to-morrow,  how  you  shall  get 
food.  Why,  if  you  have  it,  slave,  you  will 
have  it ;  if  not,  you  will  go  out  of  life.  Why 
do  you  lament?  What  room  remains  for 
tears ;  what  occasion  for  flattery  ?  Why 
should  any  one  person  envy  another  ?  Why 
should  he  be  impressed  with  awe  by  those 
who  have  great  possessions,  or  are  placed  in 
high  rank,  especially  if  they  are  powerful 
and  passionate  ?  For  what  will  they  do  to 
us  ?  The  things  which  they  can  do,  we  do 
not  regard ;  the  things  about  which  we  are 
concerned,  they  cannot  reach. 

Who  then,  after  all,  shall  hold  sway  over 
a  person   thus   disposed  ?      How  behaved 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.  1 5 

Socrates  in  regard  to  these  things  ?  As  it 
became  one  conscious  of  kinship  with  the 
^ods.     He  said  to  his  judges :  — 

"  If  you  should  tell  me,  *  We  will  acquit 
fou,  upon  condition  that  you  shall  no  longer 
discourse  in  the  manner  you  have  hitherto 
done,  nor  make  any  disturbance,  either 
among  our  young  or  our  old  people ;'  I 
would  answer :  i  You  are  ridiculous  in  think- 
ing that,  if  your  general  had  placed  me  in 
any  post,  I  ought  to  maintain  and  defend  it, 
and  choose  to  die  a  thousand  times,  rather 
than  desert  it;  but  that,  if  God  hath  as- 
signed me  any  station  or  method  of  life,  I 
ought  to  desert  that  for  you.' " 


CHAPTER  VII.    (12.) 

OF  CONTENTMENT  WITH  THINGS  THAT  ARE. 

TRUE  instruction  is  this,  —  learning  to 
desire  that  things  should  happen  as 
they  do.  And  how  do  they  happen  ?  As 
the  appointer  of  them  hath  appointed. 
He  hath  appointed   that    there  should   be 


1 6         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTE1U3. 

summer  and  winter,  plenty  and  dearth,  vir- 
tue and  vice,  and  such  contrarieties,  for  the 
harmony  of  the  whole.  To  each  of  us  he 
has  given  a  body  and  its  parts,  and  our  sev- 
eral possessions  and  companions.  Mindful 
of  this  appointment,  we  should  enter  upon  a 
course  of  education  and  instruction,  not  in 
order  to  change  the  constitution  of  things ; 

—  a  gift  n  nther  practicable  nor  desirable ; 

—  but  that  things  being  as  they  are  with 
regard  to  us,  we  may  have  our  mind  accom- 
modated to  the  facts. 

"  What,  then,  must  my  leg  be  lame  ? " 
And  is  it  for  one  paltry  leg,  wretch,  that 
you  accuse  the  universe  ?  Can  you  not 
forego  that,  in  consideration  of  the  whole  ? 
Can  you  not  give  up  something  ?  Can  you 
not  gladly  yield  it  to  him  who  gave  it  ? 
And  will  you  be  angry  and  discontented 
with  the  decrees  of  Zeus ;  which  he,  with 
the  Fates,  who  spun  in  his  presence  the 
thread  of  your  birth,  ordained  and  appoint- 
ed? Do  not  you  know  how  very  small  a 
part  you  are  of  the  whole  ?  That  is,  as  to 
body ;  for,  as  to  reason,  you  are  neither 
worse,  nor  less,  than  divine.  For  reason  is 
not  measured  by  size  or  height,  but  by  prin- 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.  \J 

ciples.  Will  you  not,  therefore,  place  your 
good  there,  where  you  share  with  the 
gods  ? 


CHAPTER  VIII.     (13.) 

OF  FORBEARANCE. 

WHEN  a  person  inquired,  how  any  one 
might  eat  to  the  divine  acceptance  • 
if  he  eats  with  justice,  said  Epictetus,  and 
with  gratitude,  and  fairly,  and  temperately, 
and  decently,  must  he  not  also  eat  to  the 
divine  acceptance?  And  if  you' call  for  hot 
water,  and  your  servant  does  not  hear  you  \ 
or,  if  he  does,  brings  it  only  warm  ;  or,  per- 
haps, is  not  to  be  found  at  home ;  then  to 
abstain  from  anger  or  petulance,  is  not  this 
to  the  divine  acceptance  ? 

"  But  how,  then,  can  one  bear  such 
things  ? " 

O  slavish  man !    will  you   not  bear  with 

your    own    brother,    who   has    God  for  his 

Father,    as    being   a   son    from    the    same 

stock,    and    of    the    same    high    descent  ? 

3 


1 8         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

But  if  you  chance  to  be  placed  in  some 
superior  station,  will  you  presently  set  your- 
self up  for  a  tyrant  ?  Will  you  not  remem- 
ber what  you  are,  and  over  whom  you  bear 
rule?  That  they  are  by  nature  your  rela- 
tions, your  brothers ;  that  they  are  the  off- 
spring of  God  ? 


CHAPTER   IX.     (14.) 

OF   THE   DIVINE   SUPERVISION. 

ZEUS  has  assigned  to  each  man  a  direc- 
tor, his  own  good  genius,  and  commit- 
ted him  to  that  guardianship ;  a  director 
sleepless  and  not  to  be  deceived.  So  that 
when  you  have  shut  your  doors,  and  dark- 
ened your  room,  remember,  never  to  say 
that  you  are  alone,  for  you  are  not  alone ; 
but  God  is  within,  and  your  genius  is  within ; 
and  what  need  have  they  of  light,  to  see 
what  you  are  doing?  To  this  God  you, 
likewise,  ought  to  swear  such  an  oath  as  the 
soldiers  do  to  Caesar.  For  they,  in  order 
to  receive  their  pay,  swear  to  prefer  before 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.  1 9 

all  things  the  safety  of  Caesar  j  and  will  not 
you  swear,  who  have  received  so  many  and 
so  great  favors ;  or,  if  you  have  sworn,  will 
you  not  fulfil  the  oath  ? 

And  what  must  you  swear?  Never  to 
distrust,  nor  accuse,  nor  murmur  at  any  of 
the  things  appointed  by  him  ;  nor  to  shrink 
from  doing  or  enduring  that  which  is  inevi- 
table. Is  this  oath  like  the  former  ?  In  the 
first  oath,  persons  swear  never  to  dishonoi 
Caesar ;  by  the  last,  never  to  dishonor  them- 
selves. 


CHAPTER  X.    (15.) 

WHAT  PHILOSOPHY  PROMISES. 

WHEN  one  consulted  him  how  he 
might  persuade  his  brother  to  for- 
bear treating  him  ill;  —  Philosophy,  an- 
swered Epictetus,  doth  not  promise  any  out- 
ward good  for  man  \  otherwise,  it  would 
admit  something  beyond  its  proper  theme. 
For  as  the  material  of  a  carpenter  is  wood  ; 
of  a  statuary,  brass :  so  of  the  art  of  living, 
Vhe  material  is  each  man's  own  life. 


20         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

"  What,  then,  is  my  brother's  life  ? " 

That,  again,  is  matter  for  his  own  art,  but  h 
external  to  you  ;  like  property,  health,  or  rep- 
utation. Philosophy  promises  none  of  these. 
In  every  circumstance  I  will  keep  my  will  in 
harmony  with  nature.  To  whom  belongs 
that  will  ?     To  him  in  whom  I  exist. 

"  But  how,  then,  is  my  brother's  unkind- 
ness  to  be  cured  ? " 

Bring  him  to  me,  and  I  will  tell  him  ;  but 
I  have  nothing  to  say  to  you  about  his  ur- 
kindness. 


CHAPTER  XI.     (16.) 

CONCERNING   PROVIDENCE. 

ANY  one  thing  in  the  creation  is  suffi- 
cient to  demonstrate  a  Providence  to 
a  humble  and  grateful  mind. 

If  we  had  any  understanding,  ought  we 
not,  both  in  public  and  in  private,  inces- 
santly  to  sing  and  praise  the  Deity,  and 
rehearse  his  benefits  ?  Ought  we  not, 
whether  we  dig,  or  plough,  or  eat,  to  sing 
this  hymn  to  God?     "Great  is  God,   who 


THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.  21 

has  supplied  us  with  these  instruments  to 
till  the  ground  ;  great  is  God,  who  has  given 
us  hands  and  organs  of  digestion  ;  who  has 
given  us  to  grow  insensibly,  to  breathe  in 
sleep." 

These  things  we  ought  for  ever  to  cele- 
brate ;  but  to  make  it  the  theme  of  the 
greatest  and  divinest  hymn,  that  he  has 
given  us  the  power  to  appreciate  these  gifts, 
and  to  use  them  well.  But  because  the 
most  of  you  are  blind  and  insensible,  there 
must  be  some  one  to  fill  this  station,  and 
lead  in  behalf  of  all  men,  the  hymn  to  God ; 
for  what  else  can  I  do,  a  lame  old  man,  but 
sing  hymns  to  God  ?  Were  I  a  nightingale, 
I  would  act  the  part  of  a  nightingale  ;  were 
I  a  swan,  the  part  of  a  swan.  But,  since  I 
am  a  reasonable  creature,  it  is  my  duty  to 
praise  God.  This  is  my  business.  I  do  it. 
Nor  will  I  ever  desert  this  post,  so  long  as 
it  is  permitted  me ;  and  I  call  on  you  to 
join  in  the  same  song. 


22         THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS. 

CHAPTER  XII.     (18,22.) 

OF  BEING  UNCONQUERABLE. 

PRACTISE  yourself,  for  heaven's  sake, 
in  little  things  ;  and  thence  proceed  to 
greater,  "I  have  a  pain  in  my  head." 
Do  not  lament.  "  I  have  a  pain  in  my  ear." 
Do  not  lament.  I  do  not  say  you  may  never 
groan :  but  do  not  groan  in  spirit ;  or,  if 
your  servant  be  a  long  while  in  bringing 
you  something  to  bind  your  head,  do  not 
croak  and  go  into  hysterics,  and  say,  "  Ev- 
erybody hates  me."  For  who  would  not 
hate  such  a  one  ? 

Relying  for  the  future  on  these  principles, 
walk  erect  and  free ;  not  trusting  to  bulk  of 
body,  like  a  wrestler ;  for  one  should  not 
be  unconquerable  in  the  sense  that  an  ass  is. 

Who,  then,  is  unconquerable  ?  He  whom 
the  inevitable  cannot  overcome.  For  such 
a  person  I  imagine  every  trial,  and  watch 
him  as  an  athlete  in  each.  He  has  been 
victorious  in  the  first  encounter.  What  will 
he  do  in  the  second  ?  What,  if  he  should 
be  exhausted   by  the  heat?     What,   if  the 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.         23 

field  be  Olympia  ?  And  so  in  other  trials. 
If  you  throw  money  in  his  way,  he  will 
despise  it.  Is  he  proof  against  the  seduc- 
tions of  women  ?  What  if  he  be  tested  by 
fame,  by  calumny,  by  praise,  by  death  ? 
He  is  able  to  overcome  them  all.  If  he  can 
bear  sunshine  and  storm,  discouragement 
and  fatigue,  I  pronounce  him  an  athlets 
unconquered  indeed. 

I  am  naturally  led  to  seek  my  own  highest 
good.  If,  therefore,  it  is  my  highest  good 
to  have  an  estate,  it  is  for  my  good  like- 
wise to  take  it  away  from  my  neighbor.  If 
it  is  my  highest  good  to  have  a  suit  of 
clothes,  it  is  for  my  good  likewise  to  steal  it 
wherever  I  find  it.  Hence  wars,  sedition, 
tyranny,  unjust  invasions.  How  shall  I, 
if  this  be  the  case,  be  able  any  longer  to 
do  my  duty  towards  Zeus  ?  If  I  suffer 
evil,  and  am  disappointed,  he  takes  no  care 
of  me.  And  what  is  he  to  me,  if  he  cannot 
help  me ;  or,  again,  what  is  he  to  me,  if  he 
chooses  I  should  be  in  the  condition  that 
I  am? 


24        THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS. 

CHAPTER  XIII.     (24.) 

OF  DIFFICULTIES. 

DIFFICULTIES  are  things  that  show 
what  men  are.  For  the  future,  in 
case  of  any  difficulty,  remember  that  God, 
like  a  gymnastic  trainer,  has  pitted  you 
against  a  rough  antagonist.  For  what  end  ? 
That  you  may  be  an  Olympic  conqueror; 
and  this  cannot  be  without  toil.  No  man, 
in  my  opinion,  has  a  more  profitable  diffi- 
culty on  his  hands  than  you  have ;  provided 
you  will  but  use  it,  as  an  athletic  champion 
uses  his  antagonist. 

Suppose  we  were  to  send  you  as  a  scout 
to  Rome.  But  no  one  ever  sends  a  timor- 
ous scout,  who,  when  he  only  hears  a  noise, 
or  sees  a  shadow,  runs  back  frightened,  and 
says,  "  The  enemy  is  at  hand."  So  now,  if 
you  should  come  and  tell  us :  "  Things  are 
in  a  fearful  way  at  Rome ;  death  is  terrible, 
calumny  terrible,  poverty  terrible ;  run,  good 
people,  the  enemy  is  at  hand;"  —  we  will 
answer:  Get  you  gone,  and  prophesy  for 
yourself ;    our  only  fault  is,   that  we  have 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.  25 

sent  such  a  scout.  Diogenes  was  sent  a 
scout  before  you,  but  he  told  us  other  tid- 
ings. He  says  that  death  is  no  evil,  for  it 
is  nothing  base  ;  that  calumny  is  only  the 
noise  of  madmen.  And  what  account  did 
this  spy  give  us  of  pain,  of  pleasure,  of  pov- 
erty ?  He  says,  that  to  be  naked  is  better 
than  a  purple  robe  ;  to  sleep  upon  the  bare 
ground,  the  softest  bed  ;  and  gives  a  proof 
of  all  he  says  by  his  own  courage,  tranquil- 
lity and  freedom  ;  and,  moreover,  by  a 
healthy  and  robust  body.  "There  is  no 
enemy  near,"  he  says.  "All  is  profound 
peace."  How  so,  Diogenes  ?  "  Look  upon 
me,"  he  says.  "  Am  I  hurt  ?  Am  I  wound- 
ed ?  Have  I  run  away  from  any  one  ? " 
This  is  a  scout  worth  having.  But  you 
come  and  tell  us  one  thing  after  another. 
Go  back  and  look  more  carefully,  and 
without    fear. 


CHAPTER  XIV.     (27,  29,  30.) 

OF   SUPERIORITY   TO   FEAR   OF   DEATH. 


Y 


OU  hear  the  vulgar  say,  "  Such  a  one, 
poor  soul !  is  dead."     Well,  his  father 


26         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EFICTETU3. 

died ;  his  mother  died.  "  Ay,  but  he  was 
cut  off  in  the  flower  of  his  age,  and  in  a  for- 
eign land."  Observe  these  ways  of  speak- 
ing ;  and  abandon  such  expressions.  Op- 
pose to  one  custom  a  contrary  custom  ;  to 
sophistry  the  art  of  reasoning,  and  the  fre- 
quent use  and  exercise  of  it.  Against 
specious  appearances  we  must  set  clear 
convictions,  bright  and  ready  for  use. 
When  death  appears  as  an  evil,  we  ought 
immediately  to  remember  that  evils  are 
things  to  be  avoided,  but  death  is  inevi- 
table. 

Whither  shall  I  fly  from  death  ?  Show 
me  the  place,  show  me  the  people,  to  whom 
I  may  have  recourse,  whom  death  does  not 
overtake.  Show  me  the  charm  to  avoid  it. 
If  there  be  none,  what  would  you  have  me 
do  ?  I  cannot  escape  death  ;  but  cannot  I 
escape  the  dread  of  it  ?  Must  I  die  trem- 
bling and  lamenting? 

Show  me  that  he  who  has  the  worse  prin- 
ciples can  get  the  advantage  over  him  who 
has  the  better.  You  never  will  show  it,  nor 
any  thing  like  it ;  for  the  Law  of  Nature 
and  of  God  is  this,  —  let  the  better  always 
prevail  over  the  worse. 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.         2J 

"  In  what  ?  " 

In  that  wherein  it  is  better.  One  body 
may  be  stronger  than  another ;  many,  than 
one ;  and  a  thief,  than  one  who  is  not  a 
thief.  Thus  I,  for  instance,  lost  my  lamp  ; 
because  the  thief  was  better  at  keeping 
awake  than  I.  But  for  that  lamp  he  paid 
the  price  of  becoming  a  thief  ;  for  that  lamp 
he  lost  his  virtue,  and  became  like  a  wild 
beast.  This  seemed  to  him  a  good  bargain ; 
and  so  let  it  be  ! 

When  children  come  to  us  clapping  their 
hands,  and  saying,  "  To-morrow  is  the  good 
feast  of  Saturn  ; "  do  we  tell  them  that  good 
doth  not  consist  in  such  things?  By  no 
means  ;  but  we  clap  our  hands  also.  Thus, 
when  you  are  unable  to  convince  any  one, 
consider  him  as  a  child,  and  clap  your  hands 
with  him  ;  or,  if  you  will  not  do  that,  at  least 
hold  your  tongue. 

This  is  not  the  contest  I  would  choose, 
say  you.  Is  it  in  your  power,  then,  to  make 
the  selection  ?  Such  a  body  is  given  you 
such  parents,  such  brothers,  such  a  country, 
and  such  a  rank  in  it ;  and  then  you  come 
to  me  to  change  the  conditions  !  Have  you 
not  abilities  to  manage  that  which  is  givec 


28         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

you  ?  You  should  say  to  me,  "  It  is  you? 
business  to  propose ;  mine,  to  treat  the  sub- 
ject well."  No ;  but  you  say,  "  Do  not 
meet  me  with  such  a  perplexity,  but  such  a 
one ;  do  not  offer  such  an  obstacle  to  me, 
but  such  a  one." 

"  In  what  character  do  you  now  appear  ? " 
As  a  witness  summoned  by  God.  "  Come 
you,  then,  and  bear  witness  for  me ;  for  you 
are  a  fit  witness  to  be  produced  by  me.  Is 
any  thing  which  is  inevitable,  to  be  classed 
as  either  good  or  evil  ?  Do  I  hurt  any  one  ? 
Have  I  made  the  good  of  each  individual 
to  rest  on  any  one  but  himself  ?  What  evi- 
dence do  you  give  for  God  ? " 

"  I  am  in  a  miserable  condition,  O  Lord ; 
I  am  undone ;  no  mortal  cares  for  me  ;  no 
mortal  gives  me  any  thing ;  all  blame  me ; 
all  speak  ill  of  me." 

Is  this  the  evidence  you  are  to  give? 
And  will  you  bring  disgrace  upon  his  sum- 
mons, who  hath  conferred  such  an  honor 
upon  you,  and  thought  you  worthy  of  being 
produced  as  a  witness  in  such  a  cause  ? 

When  you  are  going  before  any  of  the 
great,  remember  that  there  is  another,  who 
sees  from  above  what  passes,  and  whom 
you  ought  to  please,  rather  than  man. 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         29 


BOOK    II. 


CHAPTER   I.     (i.) 

OF   LEARNING  AND   DOING. 

"  TI)RAY>  see  how  I  compose  dialogues." 
Ji  Talk  not  of  that,  man,  but  rather 
be  able  to  say,  See  how  I  accomplish  my 
purposes ;  see  how  I  avert  what  I  wish  to 
shun.  Set  death  before  me ;  set  pain,  a 
prison,  disgrace,  doom,  and  you  will  know 
me.  This  should  be  the  pride  of  a  young 
man  come  out  from  the  schools.  Leave  the 
rest  to  others.  Let  no  one  ever  hear  you 
waste  a  word  upon  them,  nor  suffer  it,  if 
any  one  commends  you  for  them  ;  but  admit 
that  you  are  nobody,  and  that  you  know 
nothing.  Appear  to  know  only  this,  nevet 
to  fail  nor  fall.  Let  others  study  cases,  prob- 
lems, and  syllogisms.  Do  you  rather  con- 
template death,  change,  torture,  exile  ;  and 
all   these  with  courage,   and  reliance  upor* 


30         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

Him  who  hath  called  you  to  them,  and 
judged  you  worthy  a  post  in  which  you  may 
show  what  reason  can  do  when  it  encoun- 
ters the  inevitable. 


CHAPTER   II.     (2.) 

OF  TRANQUILLITY. 

CONSIDER,  you  who  are  going  to  take 
your  trial,  what  you  wish  to  preserve, 
and  in  what  to  succeed.  For  if  you  wish  to 
preserve  a  will  in  harmony  with  nature,  you 
are  entirely  safe  ;  every  thing  goes  well ; 
you  have  no  trouble  on  your  hands.  While 
you  wish  to  preserve  that  freedom  which 
belongs  to  you,  and  are  contented  with  that, 
for  what  have  you  longer  to  be  anxious  ? 
For  who  is  the  master  of  things  like  these  ? 
Who  can  take  them  away  ?  If  you  wish  to 
be  a  man  of  modesty  and  fidelity,  who  shall 
prevent  you?  If  you  wish  not  to  be  re- 
strained or  compelled,  who  shall  compe 
you  to  desires  contrary  to  your  principles 
to  aversions,  contrary  to  your  opinion  ? 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.  3 1 

The  judge  perhaps  will  pass  a  sentence 
against  you  which  he  thinks  formidable  \ 
but  can  he  likewise  make  you  receive  it 
with  shrinking  ?  Since,  then,  desire  and 
aversion  are  in  your  own  power,  for  what 
have  you  to  be  anxious  ?  Let  this  be  your 
introduction  ;  this  your  narration  ;  this  your 
proof ;  this  your  conclusion ;  this  your  vic- 
tory )  and  this  your  applause.  Thus  said 
Socrates  to  one  who  put  him  in  mind  to 
prepare  himself  for  his  trial ;  "  Do  you  not 
think  that  I  have  been  preparing  myself  for 
this  very  thing,  my  whole  life  long  ? "  —  By 
what  kind  of  preparation  ?  —  u  I  have  at- 
tended to  my  own  work."  —  What  mean 
you?  —  "I  have  done  nothing  unjust,  either 
in  public  or  in  private  life." 

But  if  you  wish  to  make  use  of  externals 
too,  —  your  body,  your  estate,  your  dignity,  — 
I  advise  you  immediately  to  prepare  yourself 
by  every  possible  preparation ;  and,  besides, 
to  consider  the  disposition  of  your  judge, 
and  of  your  adversary.  If  it  be  necessary 
to  embrace  his  knees,  do  so;  if  to  weep, 
weep  ;  if  to  groan,  groan.  For  when  you 
have  once  made  yourself  a  slave  to  exter- 
nals, be  a  slave  wholly  ;   do  not  struggle. 


32         THE    DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

and  be  alternately  willing  and  unwilling 
but  be  simply  and  thoroughly  the  one  or  the 
other ;  free,  or  a  slave  ;  instructed,  or  igno- 
rant ;  a  game-cock,  or  a  craven  ;  either  bear 
to  be  beaten  till  you  die,  or  give  out  at  once ; 
and  do  not  be  soundly  beaten  first ;  and 
then  give  out  at  last. 


CHAPTER    III.     (5.) 

HOW    NOBLENESS    OF    MIND    MAY   BE    CON- 
SISTENT   WITH    PRUDENCE. 

HOW  shall  one  combine  composure  an  < 
tranquillity  with  energy ;  doing  noth 
ing  rashly,  nothing  carelessly  ? 

By  imitating  those  who  play  at  gameu , 
The  dice  are  variable ;  the  pieces  are  varia 
ble.  How  do  I  know  what  will  fall  out  * 
But  it  is  my  business  to  manage  carefully 
and  dexterously  whatever  happens.  Thus, 
in  life,  too,  this  is  the  chief  business,  to  con 
sider  and  discriminate  things ;  and  sa)^, 
"  Externals  are  not  in  my  power ;  choice  is 
Where  shall  I  seek  good  and  evil  ?  Within, 
in  what  is  my  own."     But,  in  what  is  con 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.  33 

trolled  by  others,  count  nothing  good  or  evil, 
profitable  or  hurtful,  or  any  such  thing. 

What,  then,  are  we  to  treat  these  in  a 
careless  way  ? 

By  no  means  ;  for  this,  on  the  other  hand, 
would  be  a  perversion  of  the  will,  and  so 
contrary  to  nature.  But  we  are  to  act  with 
care,  because  the  use  of  our  materials  is 
not  indifferent  j  and  at  the  same  time  with 
calmness  and  tranquillity,  because  the  ma- 
terials themselves  are  uncertain. 

It  is  difficult,  I  own,  to  blend  and  unite 
tranquillity  in  accepting,  and  energy  in  using, 
the  facts  of  life  ;  but  it  is  not  impossible  : 
if  it  be,  it  is  impossible  to  be  happy. 

How  do  we  act  in  a  voyage  ?  What  is  in 
my  power  ?  To  choose  the  pilot,  the  sailors, 
the  day,  the  hour.  Afterwards  comes  a 
storm.  What  have  I  to  care  for  ?  My 
part  is  performed.  This  matter  belongs  to 
another,  to  the  pilot.  But  the  ship  is  sink- 
ing ;  what  then  have  I  to  do  ?  That  which 
alone  I  can  do  ;  I  submit  to  being  drowned, 
without  fear,  without  clamor,  or  accusing 
God  ;  but  as  one  who  knows  that  what  is  born 
must  likewise  die.  For  I  am  not  eternity, 
but  a  man  ;  a  part  of  the  whole,  as  an  hour 


34        THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

is  of  the  day.  I  must  come  like  an  hour, 
and  like  an  hour  must  pass  away.  What 
signifies  it  whether  by  drowning  or  by  a  f  evei  t 
For,  in  some  way  or  other,  pass  I  must. 


CHAPTER    IV.     (6.) 

OF  CIRCUMSTANCES. 

CHRYSIPPUS  rightly  says :  While  con- 
sequences  are  uncertain,  I  will  keep  to 
those  things  which  will  bring  me  most  in 
harmony  with  Nature  ;  for  God  himself  hath 
formed  me  to  choose  this.  If  I  knew  that 
it  was  inevitable  for  me  to  be  sick,  I  would 
conform  my  inclinations  that  way  ;  for  even 
the  foot,  if  it  had  understanding,  would  be 
inclined  to  get  into  the  dirt. 

We  weep  and  groan  over  painful  events, 
calling  them  our  " circumstances."  What 
circumstances,  man  ?  For,  if  you  call  what 
surrounds  you  circumstances,  every  thing  is 
a  circumstance  ;  but,  if  by  this  you  mean 
hardships,  where  is  the  hardship  that  what- 
ever is  born  must  die  ?  The  instrument  is 
either  a  sword,  or  a  wheel,  or  the  sea,  or  a 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         35 

tile,  or  a  tyrant.  And  what  does  it  signify 
to  you  by  what  way  you  descend  to  Hades  ? 
All  are  equal ;  but,  if  you  would  hear  the 
truth,  the  shortest  is  that  by  which  a  tyrant 
sends  you.  No  tyrant  was  ever  six  months 
in  cutting  any  man's  throat ;  but  a  fever 
often  takes  a  year.  All  these  things  are 
mere  sound,  and  the  rumor  of  empty  names. 

"  My  life  is  in  danger  from  Caesar." 

And  am  I  not  in  danger,  who  dwell  at 
Nicopolis,  where  there  are  so  many  earth 
quakes  ?  And  when  you,  yourself,  recross 
the  Adriatic,  what  is  then  in  danger  ?  Is  it 
not  your  life  ?  u  But  I  am  in  danger  of  be- 
ing banished."  What  is  it  to  be  banished  ? 
Only  to  be  somewhere  else  than  at  Rome. 

"  Yes  !  but  what  if  I  should  be  sent  to 
Gyaros?"* 

If  it  be  thought  best  for  you,  you  will  go  ; 
if  not,  there  is  another  place  than  Gyaros, 
whither  you  are  sure  to  go,  —  where  he  who 
now  sends  you  to  Gyaros  must  go  likewise, 
whether  he  will  or  not.  Why,  then,  do  you 
come  to  these  as  to  great  trials  ?  They  are 
not  equal  to  your  powers.    So  that  an  in- 

*  An  island  in  the  ^-Egean  Sea,  to  which  the 
Romans  used  to  banish  criminals. 


$6         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

genuous  young  man  would  say,  it  was  not 
worth  while  for  this,  to  have  read  and 
written  so  much,  and  to  have  sat  so  long 
listening  to  this  old  man. 


CHAPTER   V.    (8.) 

IN  THE  LIKENESS  OF  GOD. 

YOU  are  a  distinct  portion  of  the  essence 
of  God  ;  and  contain  a  certain  part  of 
him  in  yourself.  Why,  then,  are  you  igno- 
rant of  your  noble  birth  ?  Why  do  you  not 
consider  whence  you  came  ?  why  do  you  not 
remember,  when  you  are  eating,  who  you  are 
who  eat ;  and  whom  you  feed  ?  When  you 
are  in  the  company  of  women ;  when  you 
are  conversing  ;  when  you  are  exercising  ; 
when  you  are  disputing  •  do  not  you  know, 
that  it  is  the  Divine  you  feed ;  the  Divine 
you  exercise  ?  You  carry  a  God  about  with 
you,  poor  wretch,  and  know  nothing  of  it- 
Do  you  suppose  I  mean  some  god  without 
you  of  gold  or  silver  ?  It  is  within  yourself 
that  you  carry  him  \  and  you  do  not  observe 
that  you  profane  him  by  impure  thoughts 
and  unclean  actions. 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF   EPICTETUS.        37 

If  you  were  a  statue  of  Phidias,  as  Zeus 
or  Athene,  you  would  remember  both  your- 
self and  the  artist ;  and,  if  you  had  any 
sense,  you  would  endeavor  to  be  in  no  way 
unworthy  of  him  who  formed  you,  nor  of 
yourself  ;  nor  to  appear  in  an  unbecoming 
manner  to  spectators.  And  are  you  now 
careless  how  you  appear,  when  you  are  the 
workmanship  of  Zeus  himself?  And  yet, 
what  comparison  is  there,  either  between  the 
artists,  or  the  things  they  have  formed  ? 
What  work  of  any  artist  has  conveyed  into 
its  structure  those  very  faculties  which  are 
shown  in  shaping  it?  Is  it  any  thing  but 
marble,  or  brass,  or  gold,  or  ivory?  And 
the  Athene  of  Phidias,  when  its  hand  is 
once  extended,  and  a  Victory  placed  in  it,  re- 
mains in  that  attitude  for  ever.  But  the 
works  of  God  are  endowed  with  motion, 
breath,  the  powers  of  use  and  judgment. 
Being,  then,  the  work  of  such  an  artist,  will 
you  dishonor  him,  —  especially,  when  he 
hath  not  only  formed  you,  but  given  your 
guardianship  to  yourself?  Will  you  not 
only  be  forgetful  of  this,  but,  moreover,  dis- 
honor the  trust?  If  God  had  committed 
some   orphan    to   your   charge,  would   you 


38         THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS. 

have  been  thus  careless  of  him?  He  has 
delivered  yourself  to  your  care ;  and  says, 
"  I  had  no  one  fitter  to  be  trusted  than  you : 
preserve  this  person  for  me,  such  as  he  is 
by  nature ;  modest,  faithful,  noble,  unterri- 
fled,  dispassionate,  tranquil. "  And  will  you 
not  preserve  him  ? 

But  it  will  be  said,  "What  need  of  this 
lofty  look,  and  dignity  of  face  ? " 

I  answer  that  I  have  not  yet  so  much 
dignity  as  the  case  demands.  For  I  do  not 
yet  trust  to  what  I  have  learned,  and  ac- 
cepted. I  still  fear  my  own  weakness.  Let 
me  but  take  courage  a  little,  and  then  you 
shall  see  such  a  look,  and  such  an  appear- 
ance, as  I  ought  to  have.  Then  I  will  show 
you  the  statue,  when  it  is  finished,  when  it  is 
polished.  Do  you  think  I  will  show  you  a 
supercilious  countenance  ?  Heaven  forbid  ! 
For  Olympian  Zeus  doth  not  haughtily  lift 
his  brow ;  but  keeps  a  steady  countenance, 
as  becomes  him  who  is  about  to  say, 

"My  promise  is  irrevocable,  sure."* 

Such  will  I  show  myself  to  you ;  faithful, 
modest,  noble,  tranquil. 

*  Iliad  I.  526, 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.  39 

"What,  and  immortal  too,  and  exempt 
from  age  and   sickness?" 

No.  But  sickening  and  dying  as  becomes 
the  divine  within  me.  This  is  in  my  power ; 
this  I  can  do.  The  other  is  not  in  my 
power,  nor  can  I  do  it. 


CHAPTER  VI.     (10,  13.) 

THE   DUTIES   OF  DIFFERENT   RELATIONS 
IN   LIFE. 

CONSIDER  who  you  are.  In  the  first 
place  a  man  ;  that  is,  one  who  recog- 
nizes nothing  superior  to  the  faculty  of  free 
will,  but  all  things  as  subject  to  this. 

Remember,  next,  that  perhaps  you  are  a 
son ;  and  what  does  this  character  imply  ? 
To  esteem  every  thing  that  is  his  as  belong- 
ing to  his  father ;  in  every  instance  to  obey 
him ;  not  to  revile  him  to  any  one  j  not  to 
say  or  do  any  thing  injurious  to  him ;  to 
give  way  and  yield  in  every  thing ;  co-oper- 
ating with  him  to  the  utmost  of  his  power. 

Atter  this,  know  likewise  that  you  are  a 
brother,  too  ;  and  that  to  this  character  it 


40        THE    DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

belongs,  to  make  concessions  ;  to  be  easily 
persuaded ;  to  use  gentle  language  ;  never 
to  claim,  for  yourself,  any  non-essential 
thing  ;  but  cheerfully  to  give  up  these,  to  be 
repaid  by  a  larger  share  of  things  essential. 
For  consider  what  it  is,  instead  of  a  lettuce, 
for  instance,  or  a  chair,  to  procure  for  your- 
self a  good  temper.  How  great  an  advan- 
tage gained! 

If,  instead  of  a  man,  a  gentle,  social  crea- 
ture, you  have  become  a  wild  beast,  mis- 
chievous, insidious,  biting ;  have  you  lost 
nothing  ?  Is  it  only  the  loss  of  money  which 
is  reckoned  damage  ;  and  is  there  no  other 
thing  the  loss  of  which  damages  a  man  ? 
If  you  were  to  part  with  your  skill  in  gram 
mar,  or  in  music,  would  you  think  the  loss  of 
these  a  damage  ;  and  yet,  if  you  part  with 
honor,  decency,  and  gentleness,  do  you 
think  that  no  matter  ?  Yet  the  first  may  >>e 
lost  by  some  cause  external  and  inevitable 
but  the  last  only  by  our  own  fault. 

"  What,  then,  shall  I  not  injure  him  whc 
has  injured  me  ?  " 

Consider,  first,  what  injury  is ;  and  re- 
member what  you  have  heard  from  the  phi- 
losophers.    For,  if  both  good  and  evil  lie  in 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         4 1 

the  will,  see  whether  what  you  say  does  not 
amount  to  this  :  "  Since  he  has  hurt  himself, 
by  injuring  me,  shall  I  not  hurt  myself  by 
injuring  him  ?" 

If  the  things  independent  of  our  will  are 
neither  good  nor  evil ;  and  all  things  that  do 
depend  on  will,  are  in  our  own  power,  and 
can  neither  be  taken  away  from  us,  nor 
given  to  us,  unless  we  please  ;  what  room  is 
there  left  for  anxiety  ?  But  we  are  anxious 
about  this  paltry  body  or  estate  of  ours,  or 
about  what  Caesar  thinks ;  and  not  at  all 
about  any  thing  internal.  Are  we  ever 
anxious  not  to  take  up  a  false  opinion  ? 
No  ;  for  this  is  within  our  own  power  ?  Or 
not  to  follow  any  pursuit  contrary  to  nature  ? 
No  ;  nor  this.  When,  therefore,  you  see  any 
one  pale  with  anxiety,  just  as  the  physi- 
cian pronounces,  from  the  complexion,  that 
such  a  patient  is  disordered  in  the  spleen, 
and  another  in  the  liver ;  so  do  you  like- 
wise say,  this  man  is  disordered  in  his 
desires  and  aversions ;  he  cannot  walk 
steadily ;   he  is  in  a  fever. 


42         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

CHAPTER  VII.     (14.) 

THE  WILL    IN   HARMONY  WITH  EVENTS. 

WE  take  it  to  be  the  work  of  one  who 
studies  philosophy,  to  bring  his  will 
into  harmony  with  events  ;  so  that  none  of 
the  things  which  happen  may  happen  against 
our  inclination,  nor  those  which  do  not  hap- 
pen be  desired  by  us. 

Hence,  they  who  have  settled  this  point 
have  it  in  their  power  never  to  be  disap- 
pointed in  what  they  seek,  nor  to  incur 
what  they  shun  ;  but  to  lead  their  own  lives 
without  sorrow,  fear,  or  perturbation ;  and 
in  society  to  preserve  all  the  natural  or  ac- 
quired relations  of  son,  father,  brother,  citi- 
zen, husband,  wife,  neighbor,  fellow-traveller, 
ruler,  or  subject.  Something  like  this  is 
what  we  take  to  be  the  work  of  a  philoso- 
pher. It  remains  to  inquire,  how  it  is  to  be 
effected.  Now,  we  see  that  a  carpenter  be- 
comes a  carpenter  by  learning  certain  things  ; 
and  a  pilot,  by  learning  certain  things,  be- 
comes a  pilot.  Probably,  then,  it  is  not 
sufficient,  in  the  present  case,  merely  to  be 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         43 

willing  to  be  wise  and  good  ;  but  it  is  more- 
over necessary  that  certain  things  should 
be  learned.  What  these  things  are,  is  the 
question. 

The  philosophers  say,  that  we  are  first  to 
learn  that  there  is  a  God  \  and  that  his 
providence  directs  the  whole  ;  and  that  it  is 
not  merely  impossible  to  conceal  from  him 
our  actions,  but  even  our  thoughts  and 
emotions.  We  are  next  to  learn,  what  the 
gods  are  ;  for  such  as  they  are  found  to  be, 
such  must  he  seek  to  be,  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power,  who  would  please  and  obey  them. 
If  the  Deity  is  faithful,  he,  too,  must  be 
faithful  :  if  free,  beneficent,  and  noble,  he 
must  oe  free,  beneficent,  and  noble  likewise  ; 
in  all  his  words  and  actions,  behaving  as  an 
imitator  of  God. 

You  now  come  to  me,  as  if  you  wanted 
nothing.  And  how  can  it  enter  into  your 
imagination  that  there  should  be  any  thing 
in  which  you  are  deficient  ?  You  are  rich  ; 
and,  perhaps,  have  a  wife  and  children,  and 
a  great  number  of  domestics.  Caesar  takes 
notice  of  you ;  you  have  many  friends  at 
Rome ;  you  render  to  all  their  dues  ;  you 
know  how  to  requite  a  favor,  and  revenge 


44         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

an  injury.  In  what  are  you  deficient?  Sup- 
pose, then,  I  should  prove  to  you,  that  you 
are  deficient  in  what  is  most  necessary  and 
important  to  happiness  ;  and  that  hitherto 
you  have  taken  care  of  every  thing  rather 
than  your  duty;  and,  to  complete  all,  that 
you  understand  not  what  God  or  man,  or 
good  or  evil,  means  ?  That  you  are  igno- 
rant of  all  the  rest,  perhaps,  you  may  bear 
to  be  told  5  but  if  I  prove  to  you  that  you 
are  ignorant  even  of  yourself,  how  will  you 
bear  with  me,  and  how  will  you  have  pa- 
tience to  stay  and  be  convinced  ?  Not  at 
all.  You  will  immediately  be  offended,  and 
go  away.  And,  yet,  what  injury  have  I  done 
you  j  unless  a  looking-glass  injures  a  person 
not  handsome,  when  it  shows  him  to  himself, 
such  as  he  is  ?  Or  unless  a  physician 
can  be  thought  to  affront  his  patient,  when 
he  says  to  him :  "  Do  you  think,  sir,  that 
you  are  not  ill  ?  You  have  a  fever.  Eat 
no  meat  to-day.  And  drink  water."  No- 
body cries  out  here,  "  What  an  intolerable 
affront !  "  But,  if  you  say  to  any  one  :  You 
exhibit  feverishness  in  your  desires,  and  low 
habits  in  what  you  shun  ;  your  aims  are  con- 
tradictory, your  pursuits  not  conformable  tc 


THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         45 

nature,  your  opinions  rash,  and  mistaken  ; 
he  presently  goes  away,  and  complains  that 
he  is  affronted. 

This  is  the  position  we  assume.  As,  in  a 
crowded  fair,  the  horses  and  cattle  are 
brought  to  be  sold,  and  most  men  come 
either  to  buy  or  sell ;  but  there  are  a  few, 
who  come  only  to  look  at  the  fair,  and  in- 
quire how  it  is  carried  on,  and  why  in  that 
manner,  and  who  appointed  it,  and  for  what 
purpose;  —  thus,  in  this  fair  [of  the  world] 
some,  like  cattle,  trouble  themselves  about 
nothing  but  fodder.  To  all  of  you  who  busy 
yourselves  about  possessions,  and  farms, 
and  domestics,  and  public  posts,  these  things 
are  nothing  else  but  mere  fodder. 

But  there  are  some  few  men,  among  the 
crowd,  who  are  fond  of  looking  on,  and  con- 
sidering:  "What,  then,  after  all,  is  the 
world  ?  Who  governs  it  ?  Has  it  no  gov- 
ernor ?  How  is  it  possible,  when  neither  a 
city  nor  a  house  can  remain,  ever  so  short  a 
iime,  without  some  one  to  govern  and  take 
care  of  it,  that  this  vast  and  beautiful  system 
should  be  administered  in  a  fortuitous  and 
disorderly  manner  ?  Is  there,  then,  a  gov- 
ernor?    Of   what   sort   is   he?      And   how 


46         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

does  he  govern  ;  and  what  are  we  who  are 
under  him  ?  And  for  what  designed  ?  Have 
we  some  connection  and  relation  to  him, 
or  none  ? "  In  this  manner  are  the  few 
affected ;  and  apply  themselves  only  to 
view  the  fair,  and  then  depart.  Well ;  and 
they  are  laughed  at  by  the  multitude  ?  Why, 
so  are  the  lookers-on,  by  the  buyers  and 
sellers;  and,  if  the  cattle  had  any  appre- 
hension, they,  too,  would  laugh  at  such  as 
admired  any  thing  but  fodder. 


CHAPTER   VIII.     (16.) 

OF  MISTAKEN   IMPRESSIONS. 

WE  are  always  exaggerating,  and  rep- 
resenting things  greater  than  the  re- 
ality. In  a  voyage,  for  instance,  casting  my 
eyes  down  upon  the  ocean  below,  and  look- 
ing around  me,  and  seeing  no  land,  I  am 
beside  myself,  and  imagine  that,  if  I  should 
be  shipwrecked,  I  must  swallow  all  that 
ocean ;  nor  does  it  occur  to  me  that  three 
pints  are  enough  for  me.  What  is  it,  then, 
that  alarms  me  ?    The  ocean  ?    No  ;  but  my 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.        47 

own  impressions.  Again  ;  in  an  earthquake, 
T  imagine  the  city  is  going  to  fall  upon  me ; 
but  is  not  one  little  stone  enough  to  knock 
my  brains  out  ?  What  is  it,  then,  that  op- 
presses and  makes  us  beside  ourselves? 
Why,  what  else  but  our  own  impressions  ? 
For  what  is  it  but  mere  impressions  that 
distress  him  who  leaves  his  country,  and 
is  separated  from  his  acquaintance,  and 
friends,  and  place,  and  usual  manner  of 
life?  When  children  cry,  if  their  nurse 
happens  to  be  absent  for  a  little  while,  give 
them  a  cake,  and  they  forget  their  grief. 
Shall  we  compare  you  to  these  children, 
then  ? 

No,  indeed.  For  I  do  not  desire  to  be 
pacified  by  a  cake ;  but  by  right  impressions. 
And  what  are  they? 

Such  as  a  man  ought  to  study  all  day 
long,  so  as  not  to  be  absorbed  in  what  does 
not  belong  to  him  ;  neither  friend,  place, 
nor  academy,  nor  even  his  own  body ;  but 
to  remember  the  law,  and  to  have  that  con- 
stantly before  his  eyes.  And  what  is  the 
divine  law?  To  preserve  inviolate  what  is 
properly  our  own  ;  not  to  claim  what  be- 
longs to  others;   to  use  what  is  given  us. 


4&         THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

and  not  desire  what  is  not  given  us ;  and 
when  any  thing  is  taken  away,  to  restore  it 
readily,  and  to  be  thankful  for  the  time  you 
have  been  permitted  the  use  of  it ;  and  not 
cry  after  it,  like  a  child  after  its  nurse  and 
its  mamma. 

For  what  does  it  signify,  what  gets  the 
better  of  you,  or  on  what  you  depend  I 
which  is  the  worthier,  one  crying  for  a  doll 
or  for  an  academy?  You  lament  for  the 
portico  and  the  assembly  of  young  people 
and  such  entertainments.  "  Ah,  when  shall 
I  see  Athens  and  the  citadel  again  ?  "  Fool 
ish  man,  are  not  you  contented  with  whal 
you  see  every  day  ?  Can  you  see  any  thing 
better  than  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the 
whole  earth,  the  sea  ?  But  if,  besides,  you 
comprehend  him  who  administers  the  whole, 
and  carry  him  about  within  yourself,  do  you 
still  long  after  certain  stones,  and  a  fine 
rock  ?  What  will  you  do,  then,  when  you 
are  to  leave  even  the  sun  and  moon  ?  Will 
you  sit  crying,  like  an  infant  ? 

Boldly  make  a  desperate  push,  man,  as 
the  saying  is,  for  prosperity,  for  freedom, 
for  magnanimity.  Lift  up  your  head  at 
.ast,  as  being  free  from  slavery.     Dare  to 


THE    DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.         49 

look  up  to  God,  and  say,  "  Make  use  of  me 
for  the  future  as  Thou  wilt.  I  am  of  the 
same  mind  ;  I  am  one  with  Thee.  I  refuse 
nothing  which  seems  good  to  Thee.  Lead 
me  whither  Thou  wilt.  Clothe  me  in  what- 
ever dress  Thou  wilt.  Is  it  Thy  will  that  I 
should  be  in  a  public  or  a  private  condition  ; 
dwell  here,  or  be  banished ;  be  poor,  or 
rich  ?  Under  all  these  circumstances  I  will 
testify  unto  Thee  before  men.  I  will  ex- 
plain the  nature  of  every  dispensation." 
No  ?  Rather  sit  alone,  then,  in  safety,  and 
wait  till  your  mamma  comes  to  feed  you. 
If  Hercules  had  sat  loitering  at  home,  what 
would  he  have  been  ?  Eurystheus,  and  not 
Hercules.  Besides,  by  travelling  through  the 
world,  how  many  acquaintances  and  how 
many  friends  he  made.  But  none  more  his 
friend  than  God ;  for  which  reason  he  was 
believed  to  be  the  son  of  God  ;  and  was  so. 
In  obedience  to  Him,  he  went  about  extir- 
pating injustice  and  lawless  force.  But  you 
are  not  Hercules,  nor  able  to  extirpate  the 
evils  of  others ;  nor  even  Theseus,  to  extir- 
pate the  evils  of  Attica.  Extirpate  your 
own  then.  Expel,  instead  of  Procrustes 
4 


50        THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS. 

and  Sciron,*  grief,  fear,  desire,  envy,  malev 
olence,  avarice,  effeminacy,  intemperance. 
But  these  can  be  no  otherwise  expelled  than 
by  looking  up  to  God  alone,  as  your  pattern  ; 
by  attaching  yourself  to  Him  alone,  arul 
being  consecrated  to  His  commands.  If 
you  wish  for  any  thing  else,  you  will,  with 
sighs  and  groans,  follow  what  is  stronger 
than  you;  always  seeking  prosperity  with- 
out,  and  never  able  to  find  it.  For  you  seek 
it  where  it  is  not,  and  neglect  to  seek  it 
where  it  is. 


CHAPTER   IX.    (17.) 

OF  TRUE  EDUCATION. 

HAVE  no  will  but  the  will  of  God,  and 
who  shall  restrain  you ;  who  shall 
compel  you,  any  more  than  Zeus  ?  When 
you  have  such  a  guide,  and  conform  your 
will  and  inclinations  to  his,  why  need  you 
fear  being  disappointed?  Fix  your  desire 
and  aversion  on  riches,  or  poverty ;  the  one 

*  Two  famous  robbers  who  infested  Attica,  and 
were  at  last  killed  by  Theseus. 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.  5  I 

will  be  disappointed,  the  other  incurred. 
Fix  them  on  health,  power,  honors,  your 
country,  friends,  children,  in  short,  on  any 
thing  beyond  the  control  of  your  will,  you 
will  be  unfortunate.  But  fix  them  on  Zeus, 
on  the  Gods.  Give  yourself  up  to  these ; 
let  these  govern  ;  let  your  powers  be  ranged 
on  the  same  side  with  these ;  and  how  can 
you  be  any  longer  unprosperous  ?  But  if, 
poor  wretch,  you  envy  and  pity,  and  are 
jealous,  and  tremble,  and  never  cease  a 
single  day  from  complaining  of  yourself  and 
of  the  Gods,  why  do  you  boast  of  your  edu- 
cation ?  What  education,  man  ?  That  you 
have  learned  syllogisms  ?  Why  do  not  you, 
if  possible,  unlearn  all  these,  and  begin 
again  ;  convinced  that  hitherto  you  have 
not  even  touched  on  the  essential  point? 
And  for  the  future,  beginning  from  this 
foundation,  proceed  in  order  to  the  super- 
structure ;  that  nothing  may  happen  which 
you  do  not  wish,  and  that  every  thing  may 
happen  which  you  desire. 

Give  me  but  one  young  man,  who  brings 
this  intention  with  him  to  the  school ;  who 
is  a  champion  for  this  point,  and  says,  "I 
yield  up  all  the  rest ;  it  suffices  me,  if  once 

. 


52  THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

I  become  able  to  pass  my  life  free  from 
hindrance  and  grief;  to  stretch  out  my  neck 
to  all  events  as  free ;  and  to  look  up  to 
Heaven,  as  the  friend  of  God,  fearing  noth 
ing  that  can  happen."  Let  any  one  of  you 
show  himself  of  such  a  disposition,  that  I 
may  say,  "  Come  into  the  place,  young  man, 
that  is  of  right  your  own  ;  for  you  are  des- 
tined to  be  an  ornament  to  philosophy. 
Yours  are  these  possessions ;  yours,  these 
books ;  yours,  these  discourses." 


CHAPTER  X.     (18.) 

OF  THE  POWER   OF   HABIT, 

EVERY  habit  and  faculty  is  preserved 
and  increased  by  correspondent  ac- 
tions ;  as  the  habit  of  walking,  by  walking  ; 
of  running,  by  running.  If  you  would  be  a 
reader,  read  ;  if  a  writer,  write.  But  if  you 
do  not  read  for  a  month  together,  but  do 
something  else,  you  will  see  what  will  be  the 
consequence.  So,  after  sitting  still  for  ten 
days,  get  up  and  attempt  to  take  a  long 
walk  ;  and  you  will  find  how  your  legs  are 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.  53 

weakened.  Upon  the  whole,  then,  whatever 
you  would  make  habitual,  practise  it ;  and 
if  you  would  not  make  a  thing  habitual,  do 
not  practise  it,  but  habituate  yourself  to 
something  else. 

It  is  the  same  with  regard  to  the  opera- 
tions of  the  soul.  Whenever  you  are  angry, 
be  assured  that  it  is  not  only  a  present  evil, 
but  that  you  have  increased  a  habit,  and 
added  fuel  to  a  fire.  When  you  are  over- 
come by  the  seductions  of  a  woman,  do  not 
consider  it  as  a  single  defeat  alone,  but  that 
you  have  fed,  that  you  have  increased,  your 
dissoluteness.  For  he  who  has  had  a  fever, 
even  after  it  has  left  him,  is  not  in  the  same 
state  of  health  as  before,  unless  he  was  per- 
fectly cured ;  and  the  same  thing  happens 
in  distempers  of  the  soul  likewise.  There 
are  certain  traces  and  blisters  left  in  it, 
which,  unless  they  are  well  effaced,  when- 
ever a  new  hurt  is  received  in  the  same 
part,  instead  of  blisters  will  become  sores. 

If  you  would  not  be  of  an  angry  temper, 
then,  do  not  feed  the  habit.  Give  it  noth- 
ing to  help  its  increase.  Be  quiet  at  first, 
and  reckon  the  days  in  which  you  have  not 
been  angry.     I  used  to  be  angry  every  day  t 


54         THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

now  every  other  day ;  then  every  third  and 
fourth  day ;  and  if  you  miss  it  so  long  as 
thirty  days,  offer  a  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving 
to  God.  For  habit  is  first  weakened,  and 
then  entirely  destroyed.  "  I  was  not  vexed 
to-day ;  nor  the  next  day ;  nor  for  three  or 
four  months  after ;  but  restrained  myself 
under  provocation."  Be  assured  that  you 
are  in  an  excellent  way. 

Stay,  wretch,  do  not  be  hurried  away. 
The  combat  is  great,  the  achievement  di- 
vine ;  for  empire,  for  freedom,  for  prosperity, 
for  tranquillity.  Remember  God,  Invoke 
him  for  your  aid  and  protector;  as  sailors 
do  Castor  and  Pollux,  in  a  storm.  But,  if 
you  are  once  defeated,  and  say  that  you  will 
get  the  victory  another  time,  and  then  the 
same  thing  over  again  ;  assure  yourself  that 
you  will  at  last  "be  reduced  to  so  weak  and 
wretched  a  condition,  you  will  not  so  much 
as  know  when  you  do  amiss ;  but  you  will 
even  begin  to  make  defences  for  your  be- 
havior, and  thus  verify  the  saying  of  He 
6iod :  — 

"  With  constant  ills,  the  dilatory  strive." 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         55 

CHAPTER  XL    (19,  21.) 

OF  INCONSISTENCY. 

SHOW  me,  how  you  are  used  to  exer- 
cise yourself  on  shipboard.  Remember 
these  distinctions,  when  the  mast  rattles, 
and  some  idle  fellow  stands  by  you,  while 
you  are  screaming,  and  says  :  "  For  heaven's 
sake,  talk  as  you  did  a  little  while  ago.  Is 
it  vice  to  suffer  shipwreck  ?  Or  does  it  par- 
take of  vice  ? "  Would  you  not  take  up  a 
log,  and  throw  it  at  his  head ?  "What  have 
we  to  do  with  you,  sir  ?  We  are  perishing, 
and  you  come  and  jest."  Again  ;  if  Caesar 
should  summon  you,  to  answer  an  accusa- 
tion, remember  these  distinctions.  If,  when 
you  are  going  in,  pale  and  trembling,  any 
one  should  meet  you  and  say,  "  Why  do  you 
tremble,  sir?  What  is  this  affair  you  are 
engaged  in  ?  Doth  Caesar,  within  there, 
give  virtue  and  vice  to  those  who  approach 
him  ? "  —  "  What,  do  you,  too,  insult  me. 
and  add  to  my  evils  ? "  —  "  Nay,  but  tell  me, 
philosopher,  why  you  tremble  ?  Is  there 
any  other  danger,  but  death,  or  a  prison,  or 


56         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

bodily  pain,  or  exile,  or  slander  ?  "  —  "  Why, 
what  else  should  there  be  ?  "  —  "  Are  any  of 
these  vice?  Or  do  they  partake  of  vice? 
What,  then,  did  you  yourself  use  to  say  of 
these  things?"  —  "What  have  you  to  do 
with  me,  sir  ?  My  own  evils  are  enough  for 
me."  —  "  You  say  rightly.  Your  own  evils 
are  indeed  enough  for  you ;  your  baseness, 
your  cowardice,  and  that  arrogance  by  which 
you  were  elated,  as  you  sat  in  the  schools. 
Why  did  you  assume  plumage  not  your  own  ? 
Why  did  you  call  yourself  a  Stoic  ?  " 

Who,  then,  is  a  Stoic  ?  As  we  call  that 
it  Phidian  statue,  which  is  formed  according 
to  the  art  of  Phidias ;  so  show  me  some  one 
person  formed  according  to  the  principles 
which  he  professes.  Show  me  one  who  i> 
sick,  and  happy;  in  danger,  and  happy; 
dying,  and  happy ;  .exiled,  and  happy;  dis- 
graced, and  happy.  Show  him  to  me  ;  for, 
by  Heaven,  I  long  to  see  a  Stoic.  But  you 
have  not  one  fully  developed  ?  Show  me, 
then,  one  who  is  developing ;  one  who  is 
approaching  towards  this  character.  Do  me 
this  favor.  Do  not  refuse  an  old  man  a  sight 
which  he  has  never  yet  seen.  Do  you  sup- 
pose that   you    are    to    show   the    Zeus,    or 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         57 

Athene  of  Phidias,  a  work  of  ivory  or  gold  ? 
Let  any  of  you  show  me  a  human  soul,  desir- 
ing to  be  in  unity  with  God  ;  not  to  accuse 
either  God  or  man  ;  not  to  be  disappointed 
of  its  desire,  nor  incur  its  aversion ;  not  to 
be  angry  ;  not  to  be  envious  ;  not  to  be  jeal- 
ous ;  in  a  word,  desiring  from  a  man  to  be- 
come a  god ;  and,  in  this  poor  mortal  body, 
aiming  to  have  fellowship  with  Zeus.  Show 
him  to  me.     But  you  cannot. 

I  am  now  your  preceptor,  and  you  come 
to  be  instructed  by  me.  And,  indeed,  my 
aim  is  to  secure  you  from  being  restrained, 
compelled,  hindered;  to  make  you  free, 
prosperous,  happy;  looking  to  God  upon 
every  occasion  great  or  small.  And  you 
come  to  learn  and  study  these  things.  Why, 
then,  do  you  not  finish  your  work,  if  you 
have  the  proper  aims,  and  I,  besides  the  aim, 
the  proper  qualifications?  What  is  wanting? 
When  I  see  an  artificer,  and  the  materials 
lying  ready,  I  await  the  work.  Now  here  is 
the  artificer ;  here  are  the  materials ;  what 
is  it  we  want  ?  Is  not  the  thing  capable  of  be- 
ing taught  ?  It  is.  Is  it  not  in  our  own  power 
then  ?  The  only  thing  of  all  others  that  is 
so.     Neither    riches,  nor  health,  nor  fame, 


58  THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

nor,  in  short,  any  thing  else  is  in  our  power, 
except  a  right  use  of  the  semblances  of  things. 
This  alone  is,  by  nature,  not  subject  to 
restraint,  not  subject  to  hindrance.  Why, 
then,  do  you  not  finish  it?  Tell  me  the 
cause  ?  It  must  be  my  fault,  or  yours,  or 
from  the  nature  of  the  thing.  The  thing 
itself  is  practicable,  and  the  only  thing  in 
our  power.  The  fault,  then,  must  be  either  in 
me,  or  in  you,  or,  more  truly,  in  both.  Well, 
then,  shall  we  at  length  begin  to  carry  such 
an  aim  with  us  ?  Let  us  lay  aside  all  that  is 
past.  Let  us  begin.  Only  believe  me,  and 
you  shall  see. 

You  have  been  fighting  at  home  with  your 
man-servant;  you  have  turned  the  house 
upside-down,  and  alarmed  the  neighborhood ; 
and  do  you  come  to  me  with  a  pompous 
show  of  wisdom,  and  sit  and  criticise  how  I 
explain  a  sentence,  how  I  prate  whatever 
comes  into  my  head  ?  Do  you  come,  envious 
and  dejected,  that  nothing  has  come  from 
home  for  you ;  and  in  the  midst  of  the  dis- 
putations, sit  thinking  on  nothing,  but  how 
your  father  or  your  brother  may  treat  you? 
"  What  are  they  saying  about  me  at  home  ? 
Now  they  think  I  am  improving,  and  say,  he 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.         59 

will  come  back  with  universal  knowledge.  I 
wish  I  could  learn  every  thing  before  my  re- 
turn ;  but  this  requires  much  labor,  and 
nobody  sends  me  any  thing.  The  baths 
are  very  bad  at  Nicopolis ;  and  things  go 
very  ill  both  at  home  and  here." 


w 


CHAPTER  XII.     (22,  23.) 

OF    FRIENDSHIP. 

HEN  any  one  identifies  his  interest 
with  those  of  sanctity,  virtue,  country, 
parents,  and  friends,  all  these  are  secured ; 
but  whenever  he  places  his  interest  in  any 
thing  else  than  friends,  country,  family,  and 
justice,  then  these  all  give  way,  borne  down 
by  the  weight  of  self-interest.  For  wherever 
/  and  mine  are  placed,  thither  must  every 
living  being  gravitate.  If  in  body,  that  will 
sway  us ;  if  in  our  own  will,  that ;  if  in  ex- 
ternals, these.  If,  therefore,  I  rest  my  per- 
sonality in  the  will,  then  only  shall  I  be  a 
friend,  a  son,  or  a  father,  such  as  I  ought 
For,  in  that  case,  it  will  be  for  my  interest 
to  preserve   the   faithful,   the   modest,  the 


60         THE    DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

patient,  the  abstinent,  the  beneficent  char- 
acter ;  to  keep  the  relations  of  life  inviolate. 
But,  if  I  place  my  personality  in  one  thing, 
and  virtue  in  another,  the  doctrine  of  Epicu- 
rus will  stand  its  ground,  that  virtue  is  noth- 
ing, or  mere  opinion. 

Whoever  among  you  studies  either  to  be 
or  to  gain  a  friend,  let  him  cut  up  all  false 
convictions  by  the  root,  hate  them,  drive 
them  utterly  out  of  his  soul.  Thus,  in  the 
first  place,  he  will  be  secure  from  inward  re- 
proaches and  contests  ;  from  vacillation  and 
self-torment.  Then  with  respect  to  others  \ 
to  every  like-minded  person,  he  will  be  with- 
out disguise  ;  to  such  as  are  unlike,  he  will 
be  patient,  mild,  gentle,  and  ready  to  forgive 
them,  as  failing  in  points  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance ;  but  severe  to  none,  being  fully  con- 
vinced of  Plato's  doctrine,  that  the  soul  is 
never  willingly  deprived  of  truth.  Without 
all  this,  you  may,  in  many  respects,  live  as 
friends  do  ;  and  drink,  and  lodge,  and  travel 
together,  and  even  be  born  of  the  same 
parents ;  and  so  may  serpents,  too ;  but, 
neither  they  nor  you  can  ever  be  really 
friends,  while  your  accustomed  principles 
remain  brutal  and  execrable. 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.         6 1 

Your  business,  man,  was  to  prepare  your- 
self for  such  use  of  the  semblances  of  things 
as  nature  demands ;  not  to  fail  in  what  you 
seek,  or  incur  what  you  shun ;  never  to  be 
disappointed  or  unfortunate,  but  free,  unre- 
strained, uncompelled  ;  conformed  to  the  Di 
vine  Administration,  obedient  to  that ;  find- 
ing fault  with  nothing ;  but  able  to  say,  from 
your  whole  soul,  these  verses, — 

"  Conduct  me,  Zeus,  and  thou,  O  Destiny, 
Wherever  your  decrees  have  fixed  my  lot. 
I  follow  cheerfully ;  and,  did  I  not, 
Wicked  and  wretched,  I  must  follow  still."* 

*  A  fragment  of  Cleanthes. 


0,2         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 


BOOK    III. 

CHAPTER  I.    (i.) 

THE  DIVINE    MESSAGE. 

WHEN  you  have  once  heard  this  dis- 
course, go  home,  and  say  to  yourself, 
It  is  not  Epictetus  who  has  told  me  all 
these  things,  —  for  how  should  he  ?  —  but 
some  propitious  God  through  him ;  for  it 
would  never  have  entered  the  head  of  Epic- 
tetus, who  is  not  used  to  dispute  with  any 
one.  Well ;  let  us  obey  God,  then,  that  we 
may  not  incur  the  Divine  displeasure.  If  a 
crow  has  signified  any  thing  to  you  by  his 
croaking,  it  is  not  the  crow  that  signifies  it, 
but  God,  through  him.  And,  if  you  have 
any  thing  signified  to  you  through  the  hu- 
man voice,  doth  He  not  cause  that  man  to 
tell  it  to  you,  that  you  may  know  the  Divine 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         63 

power  which  acts  thus  variously,  and  signi- 
fies the  greatest  and  principal  things  through 
the  noblest  messenger? 


CHAPTER   II.     (5.) 

CONCERNING  THOSE  WHO    PLEAD    SICKNESS. 

"  T  AM  sick  here,"  said  one  of  the  scholars  : 

JL     "I  will  return  home." 

Were  you  never  sick  at  home  then  ?  Con- 
sider whether  you  are  doing  any  thing  here 
conducive  to  the  regulation  of  your  Will ;  for, 
if  you  make  no  improvement,  it  was  to  no  pur- 
pose that  you  came.  Go  home,  then,  and  take 
care  of  your  domestic  affairs.  For  if  your 
Reason  cannot  be  brought  into  conformity 
with  nature,  your  land  may.  You  may  in- 
crease your  money,  support  the  old  age  of 
your  father,  mix  in  the  public  assemblies, 
and  rule  as  badly  as  you  have  lived,  and  do 
other  such  things.  But  if  you  are  conscious 
to  yourself  that  you  are  casting  off  some  of 
your  wrong  principles,  and  taking  up  differ- 
ent ones  in  their  room,  and  that  you  have 
transferred  your  scheme  of  life  from  things 


64         THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

not  controllable  by  will  to  those  controllable  \ 
and  that  if  you  do  sometimes  cry  alas,  it  is 
not  for  what  concerns  your  father,  or  your 
brother,  but  yourself,  —  why  do  you  any  longer 
plead  sickness  ?  Do  not  you  know  that 
both  sickness  and  death  must  overtake  us  ? 
At  what  employment  ?  The  husbandman  at 
his  plough ;  the  sailor  on  his  voyage.  At 
what  employment  would  you  be  taken  ?  For, 
indeed,  at  what  employment  ought  you  to  be 
taken  ?  If  there  is  any  better  employment 
at  which  you  can  be  taken,  follow  that. 

For  my  own  part,  I  would  be  found  en- 
gaged in  nothing  but  in  the  regulation  of  my 
own  Will ;  how  to  render  it  undisturbed,  un- 
restrained, uncompelled,  free.  I  would  be 
found  studying  this,  that  I  may  be  able  to 
say  to  God,  "Have  I  transgressed  Thy 
commands  ?  Have  I  perverted  the  powers, 
the  senses,  the  instincts  which  Thou  hast 
given  me  ?  Have  I  ever  accused  Thee, 
or  censured  Thy  dispensations  ?  I  have 
been  sick,  because  it  was  Thy  pleasure,  like 
others ;  but  I  willingly.  I  have  been  poor, 
it  being  Thy  will ;  but  with  joy.  I  have  not 
been  in  power,  because  it  was  not  Thy  will ; 
and  power  I  have  never  desired.    Hast  Thou 


THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         OS 

ever  seen  me  saddened  because  of  this? 
Have  I  not  always  approached  Thee  with  a 
cheerful  countenance  ;  prepared  to  execute 
Thy  commands  and  the  indications  of  Thy 
will  ?  Is  it  Thy  pleasure  that  I  should  de- 
part from  this  assembly  ?  I  depart.  I  give 
Thee  all  thanks  that  Thou  hast  thought  me 
worthy  to  have  a  share  in  it  with  Thee ;  to 
behold  Thy  works,  and  to  join  with  Thee  in 
comprehending  Thy  administration."  Let 
death  overtake  me  while  I  am  thinking, 
while  I  am  writing,  while  I  am  reading  such 
things  as  these. 

"  But  I  shall  not  have  my  mother  to  hold 
my  head  when  I  am  sick." 

Get  home,  then,  to  your  mother ;  for  you 
are  most  fit  to  have  your  head  held  when  you 
are  sick. 

"  But  I  used  at  home  to  lie  on  a  fine 
couch." 

Get  to  this  couch  of  yours;  for  you  ar« 
fit  to  lie  upon  such  a  one,  even  in  health ; 
so  do  not  miss  doing  that  for  which  you  are 
qualified.  But  what  says  Socrates?  "As 
one  man  rejoices  in  the  improvement  of  his 
estate,  another  of  his  horse,  so  do  I  daily 
rejoice  in  perceiving  myself  to  grow  better. 


66         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

"  In  what  ?     In  pretty  speeches  ?  " 

Use  courteous  words,  man. 

"In  trifling  theorems?  What  do  they 
signify  ?  Yet,  indeed,  I  do  not  see  that 
the  philosophers  are  employed  in  any  thing 
else." 

Do  you  think  it  nothing,  to  accuse  and 
censure  no  one,  God  nor  man  ?  Always  to 
carry  abroad  and  bring  home  the  same 
countenance  ?  These  were  the  things  which 
Socrates  knew ;  and  yet  he  never  professed 
to  know,  or  to  teach  any  thing ;  but  if  any 
one  wanted  pretty  speeches,  or  little  theo- 
rems, he  brought  him  to  Protagoras,  to 
Hippias ;  just  as  if  any  one  had  come  for 
pot-herbs,  he  would  have  taken  him  to  a 
gardener.  Which  of  you,  then,  earnestly 
sets  his  heart  on  this?  If  you  had,  you 
would  bear  sickness  and  hunger  and  death 
with  cheerfulness.  If  any  one  of  you  has 
truly  loved,  he  knows  that  I  speak  truth. 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.         6j 

CHAPTER   III.     (8.) 

OF  THE  SEMBLANCES  OF  THINGS. 

IN  the  same  manner  as  we  exercise  our- 
selves against  sophistical  questions,  we 
should  exercise  ourselves  likewise  in  relation 
to  such  semblances  as  every  day  occur  ;  for 
these,  too,  offer  questions  to  us.  Such  a 
one's  son  is  dead.  What  think  you  of  it? 
Answer :  it  is  a  thing  inevitable,  and  there- 
fore not  an  evil.  Such  a  one  is  disinherited 
by  his  father.  What  think  you  of  it  ?  It  is 
inevitable,  and  so  not  an  evil.  Caesar  has 
condemned  him.  This  is  inevitable,  and  so 
not  an  evil.  He  has  been  afflicted  by  it. 
This  is  controllable  by  Will :  it  is  an  evil. 
He  has  supported  it  bravely.  This  is  within 
the  control  of  Will :  it  is  a  good. 

If  we  train  ourselves  in  this  manner,  we 
shall  make  improvement ;  for  we  shall  never 
assent  to  any  thing  but  what  the  semblance 
itself  includes.  A  son  is  dead.  What  then  ? 
A  son  is  dead.  Nothing  more  ?  Nothing. 
A  ship  is  lost.  What  then  ?  A  ship  is  lost. 
He  is  carried  to  prison.    What  then  ?    He 


68         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

is  carried  to  prison.  That  he  is  unhappy  is 
an  addition  that  every  one  must  make  for 
himself.  "  But  Zeus  does  not  order  these 
things  rightly."  Why  so  ?  Because  he  has 
made  you  to  be  patient?  Because  he  has 
made  you  to  be  brave  ?  Because  he  has 
made  them  to  be  no  evils  ?  Because  it  is 
permitted  you,  while  you  suffer  them,  to  be 
happy  ? 


CHAPTER    IV.    (9.) 

WHAT  IS   WEALTH  ? 

"  TF  I  employ  myself  in  these  things,  I  shall 
JL  be  without  an  estate,  like  you ;  without 
plate,  without  equipage,  like  you."  Nothing:, 
perhaps,  is  necessary  to  be  said  to  this,  but 
that  I  do  not  want  them.  But,  if  you  pos- 
sess many  things,  you  still  want  others ;  so 
that,  whether  you  will  or  not,  you  are  poorer 
than  I. 

"  What  then  do  I  need  ?  " 
What  you  have  not,  —  constancy  ;  a  mind 
conformable  to  Nature  ;  and  a  freedom  from 
perturbation.     Patron,  or   no   patron,  what 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.         69 

care  I  ?  But  you  do.  I  am  richer  than  you. 
I  am  not  anxious  what  Caesar  will  think  of 
me.  I  flatter  no  one  on  that  account.  This 
I  have,  instead  of  silver  and  gold  plate. 
You  have  your  vessels  of  gold;  but  your 
discourse,  your  principles,  your  opinions, 
your  pursuits,  your  desires,  are  of  mere 
earthen-ware.  When  I  have  all  these  con- 
formable to  Nature,  why  should  I  not  be- 
stow some  study  upon  my  reasoning,  too? 
I  am  at  leisure.  My  mind  is  under  no  dis- 
traction. In  this  freedom  from  distraction, 
what  shall  I  do  ?  Have  I  any  thing  more  be- 
coming a  man  than  this  ?  You,  when  you 
have  nothing  to  do,  are  restless  ;  you  go  to 
the  theatre,  or  perhaps  to  bathe.  Why  should 
not  the  philosopher  polish  his  reasoning? 
You  have  fine  crystal  and  myrrhine  vases ; 
I  have  acute  forms  of  argument.  To  you, 
all  you  have  appears  little :  to  me  all  I  have 
seems  great.  Your  appetite  is  insatiable : 
mine  is  satisfied.  When  children  thrust 
their  hand  into  a  narrow  jar  of  nuts  and  figs, 
if  they  fill  it,  they  cannot  get  it  out  again  ; 
then  they  begin  crying.  Drop  a  few  of 
them,  and  you  will  get  out  the  rest.  And 
do  you,  too,  drop  your  desire :  do  not 
demand  much  and  you  will  attain. 


JO        THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

CHAPTER  V.    (10.) 

HOW  TO  BEAR  SICKNESS. 

\\  7~E  should  have  our  principles  ready 
VV  for  use  on  every  occasion.  At 
dinner,  such  as  relate  to  dinner;  in  the 
bath,  such  as  relate  to  the  bath  ;  in  the  bed, 
such  as  relate  to  the  bed. 

"  Let  not  the  stealing  god  of  sleep  surprise, 
Nor  creep  in  slumbers  on  thy  weary  eyes, 
Ere  every  action  of  the  former  day 
Strictly  thou  dost,  and  righteously,  survey. 
What  have  I  done  ?    In  what  have  I  transgressed  ? 
What  good,  or  ill,  has  this  day's  life  expressed  ? 
Where  have  I  failed  in  what  I  ought  to  do  ? 
If  evil  were  thy  deeds,  repent  and  mourn  ; 
If  good,  rejoice. "  * 

We  should  retain  these  verses  so  as  to 
apply  them  to  our  use;  not  merely  to  say 
them  by  rote,  as  we  do  with  verses  in  honor 
of  Apollo. 

Again,  in  a  fever,  we  should  have  such 
principles  ready  as  relate  to  a  fever ;  and 
not,  as  soon  as  we  are  taken  ill,  forget  all. 

*  Pythagoras,  Golden  Verses,  40-44- 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.         71 

Provided  I  do  but  act  as  a  philosopher,  let 
what  will  happen.  Some  way  or  other  de- 
part I  must  from  this  frail  body,  whether 
a  fever  comes  or  not.  What  is  it  to  be 
a  philosopher?  Is  it  not  to  be  prepared 
against  events?  Do  you  not  comprehend 
that  you  then  say,  in  effect,  "If  I  am  but 
prepared  to  bear  all  events  with  calmness, 
let  what  will  happen ; "  otherwise,  you  are 
like  an  athlete,  who,  after  receiving  a  blow, 
should  quit  the  combat.  In  that  case,  in- 
deed, you  might  leave  off  without  a  penalty. 
But  what  shall  we  get  by  leaving  off  phil- 
osophy ? 

What,  then,  ought  each  of  us  to  say  upon 
every  different  occasion  ?  "  It  was  for  this 
that  I  exercised ;  it  was  for  this  that  I 
trained  myself."  God  says  to  you,  give  me 
a  proof  if  you  have  gone  through  the  prepar- 
atory combats  according  to  rule ;  if  you 
have  followed  a  proper  diet  and  proper  ex- 
ercise ;  if  you  have  obeyed  your  master ;  — 
and,  after  this,  do  you  faint  at  the  very  time 
of  action  ? 

Now  is  your  time  for  a  fever.  Bear  it 
well.  For  thirst ;  bear  it  well.  Is  it  not  in 
your  power?     Who  shall  restrain  you?     A 


72         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

physician  may  restrain  you  from  drinking ; 
but  he  cannot  restrain  you  from  bearing 
your  thirst  well.  He  may  restrain  you  from 
eating;  but  he  cannot  restrain  you  from 
bearing  hunger  well.  "But  I  cannot  fol- 
low my  studies."  And  for  what  end  do  you 
follow  them,  slave  ?  Is  it  not  that  you 
may  be  prosperous  ?  That  you  may  be  con- 
stant? that  you  may  think  and  act  confor- 
mably to  Nature  ?  What  restrains  you,  but 
that,  in  a  fever,  you  may  keep  your  Reason 
in  harmony  with  Nature  ?  Here  is  the  test 
of  the  matter.  Here  is  the  trial  of  the 
philosopher  ;  for  a  fever  is  a  part  of  life,  as 
is  a  walk,  a  voyage,  or  a  journey.  Do  you 
read  when  you  are  walking?  No  ;  nor  in  a 
fever.  But  when  you  walk  well,  you  attend 
to  what  belongs  to  a  walker  ;  so,  if  you  bear 
a  fever  well,  you  have  every  thing  belonging 
to  one  in  a  fever. 

What  is  it  to  bear  a  fever  well  ?  Not  to 
blame  either  God  or  man  ;  not  to  be  afflicted 
at  what  happens ;  to  await  death  in  a  right 
and  becoming  manner  ;  and  to  do  what  is  to 
be  done. 

What  occasion  is  there,  then,  for  fear? 
What  occasion  for  anger,  for  desire,  about 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.         73 

things  that  belong  to  others,  or  are  of  no 
value  ?  For  two  rules  we  should  always 
have  ready,  —  that  there  is  nothing  good  or 
evil  save  in  the  Will ;  and  thai  we  are  not  to 
lead  events,  but  to  follow  them. 

"  My  brother  ought  not  to  have  treated 
me  so."  Very  true  ;  but  he  must  see  to 
that.  However  he  treats  me,  I  am  to  act 
rightly  with  regard  to  him  ;  for  the  one  is 
my  own  concern,  the  other  is  not ;  the  one 
cannot  be  restrained,  the  other  may. 


CHAPTER   VI.     (13.) 

WHAT    IS   SOLITUDE? 

IT  is  solitude  to  be  in  the  condition  of  a 
helpless  person.  For  he  who  is  alone  is 
not  therefore  solitary,  any  more  than  one  in 
a  crowd  is  the  contrary.  As  Zeus  converses 
with  himself,  acquiesces  in  himself,  and  con- 
templates his  own  administration,  and  is 
employed  in  thoughts  worthy  of  himself ;  so 
should  we,  too,  be  able  to  talk  with  our- 
*»elves,  and  not  to  need  the  conversation  of 


74         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

others,  nor  suffer  ennui;  to  attend  to  the 
divine  administration  ;  to  consider  our  rela- 
tion to  other  beings  ;  how  we  have  formerly 
been  affected  by  events,  how  we  are  affected 
now ;  what  are  the  things  that  still  press 
upon  us ;  how  these,  too,  may  be  cured, 
how  removed  ;  if  any  thing  wants  complet- 
ing, to  complete  it  according  to  reason. 

You  perceive  that  Caesar  has  procured  us 
a  profound  peace ;  there  are  neither  wars 
nor  battles,  nor  great  robberies  nor  piracies  ; 
but  we  may  travel  at  all  hours,  and  sail  from 
east  to  west.  But  can  Caesar  procure  us 
peace  from  a  fever,  too  ?  From  a  shipwreck  ? 
From  a  fire  ?  From  an  earthquake  ?  From 
a  thunderstorm  ?  Nay,  even  from  love  ?  He 
cannot.  From  grief?  From  envy?  No; 
not  from  any  one  of  these.  But  the  doctrine 
of  philosophers  promises  to  procure  us  peace 
from  these,  too.  And  what  doth  it  say? 
"  If  you  will  attend  to  me,  O  mortals !  wher- 
ever you  are,  and  whatever  you  are  doing, 
you  shall  neither  grieve,  nor  be  angry,  nor 
be  compelled,  nor  restrained ;  but  you  shall 
live  serene,  and  free  from  all."  Shall  not 
he  who  enjoys  this  peace  proclaimed,  not  by 
Caesar  (for  how  should  he  have  it  to  pro- 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.        75 

claim  ?)  but  by  God,  through  Reason,  —  be 
contented  when  he  is  alone ;  reflecting  and 
considering,  "  To  me  there  can  now  no  ill 
happen :  there  is  no  thief,  no  earthquake. 
All  is  full  of  peace,  all  full  of  tranquillity  ; 
every  road,  every  assembly,  neighbor,  com- 
panion, is  powerless  to  hurt  me."  Another 
whose  care  it  is,  provides  you  with  food, 
with  clothes,  with  senses,  with  ideas.  When- 
ever He  doth  not  provide  what  is  necessary, 
He  sounds  a  retreat ;  He  opens  the  door, 
and  says  to  you,  "Come."  Whither?  To 
nothing  dreadful ;  but  to  that  whence  you 
were  made ;  to  wrhat  is  friendly  and  conge- 
nial, to  the  elements.  What  in  you  was  fire 
goes  away  to  fire ;  what  was  earth,  to  earth  ; 
what  air,  to  air ;  what  water,  to  water.  There 
is  no  Hades,  nor  Acheron,  nor  Cocytus,  nor 
Pyriphlegethon ;  but  all  is  full  of  gods  and 
divine  beings.  He  who  can  have  such 
thoughts,  and  can  look  upon  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars,  and  enjoy  the  earth  and  sea,  is  no 
more  solitary  than  he  is  helpless.  "Well; 
but  suppose  any  one  should  come  and  mur- 
der me  when  I  am  alone."  Foolish  man : 
not  you ;  but  that  insignificant  body  of 
yours. 


76        THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

What  solitude  is  there  then  left?  What 
destitution  ?  Why  do  we  make  ourselves 
worse  than  children  ?  What  do  they  do 
when  they  are  left  alone?  They  take  up 
shells  and  dust;  they  build  houses,  then 
pull  them  down  ;  then  build  something  else  ; 
and  thus  never  want  amusement.  Suppose 
you  were  all  to  sail  away ;  am  I  to  sit  and 
cry  because  I  am  left  alone  and  solitary  ? 
Am  I  so  unprovided  with  shells  and  dust  ? 
But  children  do  this  from  folly ;  and  shall 
we  be  wretched  through  wisdom  ? 


CHAPTER  VII.     (15,  17.) 

OF  THE  DAILY  LIFE    OF    A   PHILOSOPHER. 

DO  you  think  that  you  can  act  as  you  do 
and  be  a  philosopher?  That  you  ca^ 
eat,  drink,  be  angry,  be  discontented,  as  you 
are  now  ?  You  must  watch,  you  must  labor, 
you  must  get  the  better  of  certain  appetites ; 
must  quit  your  acquaintances,  be  despised 
by  your  servant,  be  laughed  at  by  those  you 
meet ;  come  off  worse  than  others  in  every 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.         77 

thing,  in  offices,  in  honors,  before  tribunals. 
When  you  have  fully  considered  all  these 
things,  approach,  if  you  please ;  if,  by  part- 
ing with  them,  you  have  a  mind  to  purchase 
serenity,  freedom,  and  tranquillity.  If  not, 
do  not  come  hither ;  do  not,  like  children, 
be  now  a  philosopher,  then  a  publican,  then 
an  orator,  and  then  one  of  Caesar's  officers. 
These  things  are  not  consistent.  You  must 
be  one  man  either  good  or  bad.  You  must 
cultivate  either  your  own  Reason  or  else  ex- 
ternals ;  apply  yourself  either  to  things 
within  or  without  you ;  that  is,  be  either  a 
philosopher,  or  one  of  the  mob. 

Whenever  you  lay  any  thing  to  the  charge 
of  Providence,  do  but  reflect,  and  you  will 
find  that  it  has  happened  agreeably  to  Rea- 
son. 

"  Well ;  but  a  dishonest  man  has  the  ad- 
vantage." 

In  what  ? 

"  In  money." 

Here  he  ought  to  surpass  you  ;  because 
he  flatters,  he  is  shameless,  he  keeps  awake. 
Where  is  the  wonder  ?  But  look  whether  he 
has  the  advantage  of  you  in  fidelity  or  in 
honor.     You  will  find  he  has  not  j  but  that 


?8         THE   DISCOl/KSES   OF   EPICTETUS. 

wherever  it  is  best  for  you  to  have  the  ad 
vantage  of  him,  there  you  have  it.  Is  it  not 
better  to  have  a  sense  of  honor  than  to  be 
rich  ?  "  Granted."  Why,  then,  are  you  an- 
gry, man,  if  you  have  what  is  best  ?  Always 
remember,  then,  and  have  it  in  mind  that  a 
better  man  has  the  advantage  of  a  worse  in 
that  direction  in  which  he  is  better;  and 
you  will  never  have  any  indignation. 


CHAPTER   VIII.    (20,21.) 

GAIN  FROM  EVERY   THING. 

CEASE  to  make  yourselves  slaves  ;  first, 
of  things,  and,  then,  upon  their  ac- 
count, of  the  men  who  have  the  power  either 
to  bestow,  or  to  take  them  away.  Is  there 
any  advantage,  then,  to  be  gained  from 
these  men  ?  From  all ;  even  from  a  reviler. 
What  advantage  does  a  wrestler  gain  from 
him  with  whom  he  exercises  himself  before 
the  combat  ?  The  greatest.  And  just  in 
the  same  manner  I  exercise  myself  with 
this  man.  He  exercises  me  in  patience,  in 
gentleness,  in  meekness.     I  am  to  suppose, 


THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         79 

then,  that  I  gain  an  advantage  from  him 
who  exercises  my  neck,  and  puts  my  back 
and  shoulders  in  order ;  so  that  the  trainer 
may  well  bid  me  grapple  him  with  both 
hands,  and  the  heavier  he  is  the  better  for 
me  j  and  yet,  it  is  no  advantage  to  me  when 
I  am  exercised  in  gentleness  of  temper ! 
This  is  not  to  know  how  to  gain  an  advan- 
tage from  men  Is  my  neighbor  a  bad  one? 
He  is  so  to  himself ;  but  a  good  one  to  me. 
He  exercises  my  good  temper,  my  modera- 
tion. Is  my  father  bad  ?  To  himself ;  but 
not  to  me.  "  This  is  the  rod  of  Hermes. 
Touch  with  it  whatever  you  please,  and  it 
will  become  gold."  No ;  but  bring  what- 
ever you  please,  and  I  will  turn  it  into  good. 
Bring  sickness,  death,  want,  reproach,  trial 
for  life.  All  these,  by  the  rod  of  Hermes, 
shall  turn  to  advantage.  "What  will  you 
make  of  death  ? "  Why,  what  but  an  orna- 
ment to  you  ?  What  but  a  means  of  your 
showing,  by  action,  what  that  man  is  who 
knows  and  follows  the  will  of  Nature. 
"  What  will  you  make  of  sickness  ?  "  I  will 
show  its  nature.  I  will  make  a  good  figure 
m  it  ;  I  will  be  composed  and  happy  ;  I  will 
not  beseech  my  physician,    nor  yet  will  I 


SO         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

pray  to  die.  What  need  you  ask  further? 
Whatever  you  give  me,  I  will  make  it  happy, 
fortunate,  respectable,  and  eligible. 

Be  manly  in  your  ways  of  eating,  drinking, 
dressing ;  marry,  have  children,  perform  the 
duty  of  a  citizen  ;  bear  reproach ;  bear  with 
an  unreasonable  brother  ;  bear  with  a  fa- 
ther; bear  with  a  son,  a  neighbor,  a  com- 
panion, as  becomes  a  man.  Show  us  these 
things,  that  we  may  see  that  you  have  really 
learned  something  from  the  philosophers. 


CHAPTER   IX.     (22.) 

OF    THE    CYNIC    PHILOSOPHY. 

WHEN  one  of  his  scholars,  who  seemed 
inclined  to  the  Cynic  philosophy, 
asked  him  what  a  Cynic  must  be,  and  what 
was  the  general  plan  of  that  sect.  Let  us 
examine  it,  he  said,  at  our  leisure.  But  thus 
much  I  can  tell  you  now,  that  he  who  at- 
tempts so  great  an  affair  without  divine 
guidance  is  an  object  of  divine  wrath,  and 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         ol 

would  only  bring  public  dishonor  upon  him- 
self. 

First,  with  regard  to  yourself;  you  must 
no  longer,  in  any  instance  appear  as  now. 
You  must  accuse  neither  God  nor  man. 
You  must  altogether  control  desire  ;  and 
must  transfer  aversion  to  such  things  only  as 
are  controllable  by  Will.  You  must  have 
neither  anger,  nor  resentment,  nor  envy,  nor 
pity. 

You  must  purify  your  own  ruling  faculty, 
to  match  this  method  of  life.  Now  the  mate- 
rial for  me  to  work  upon  is  my  own  mind  ; 
as  wood  is  for  a  carpenter,  or  leather  for  a 
shoemaker  ;  and  my  business  is,  a  right  use 
of  things  as  they  appear.  But  body  is  noth- 
ing to  me :  its  parts  nothing  to  me.  Let 
death  come  when  it  will ;  either  of  the  whole 
body  or  of  part.  "  Go  into  exile."  And 
whither  ?  Can  any  one  turn  me  out  of  the 
universe  ?  He  cannot.  But  wherever  I  go, 
there  is  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  dreams, 
auguries,  communication  with  God.  And 
even  this  preparation  is  by  no  means  suffi- 
cient for  a  true  Cynic.  But  it  must  further 
be  known  that  he  is  a  messenger  sent  from 
Zeus  to  men,  concerning  good  and  evil  ;  to 
6 


82         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

show  them  that  they  are  mistaken,  and  seek 
the  essence  of  good  and  evil  where  it  is  not, 
but  do  not  observe  it  where  it  is. 

He  must,  then,  if  it  should  so  happen,  be 
able  to  lift  up  his  voice,  to  come  upon  the 
stage,  and  say,  like  Socrates :  "  O  mortals, 
whither  are  you  hurrying  ?  What  are  you 
about  ?  Why  do  you  tumble  up  and  down, 
O  miserable  wretches !  like  blind  men  ? 
You  are  going  the  wrong  way,  and  have  for- 
saken the  right.  You  seek  prosperity  and 
happiness  in  a  wrong  place,  where  they  are 
not ;  nor  do  you  give  credit  to  another,  who 
shows  you  where  they  are.  Why  do  you  seek 
this  possession  without  ?  It  lies  not  in  the 
body ;  if  you  do  not  believe  me,  look  at  Myro, 
look  at  Ofellius.  It  is  not  in  wealth  ;  if  you  do 
not  believe  me,  look  at  Croesus ;  look  upon 
the  rich  of  the  present  age,  how  full  of  lam- 
entation their  life  is.  It  is  not  in  power : 
for,  otherwise,  they  who  have  been  twice  and 
thrice  consuls  must  be  happy ;  but  they  are 
not. 

Consider  carefully,  know  yourself,  con- 
sult the  Divinity;  attempt  nothing  without 
God  ;  for,  if  he  counsels  you,  be  assured 
that  it  is  his  will,  whether  that  you  should 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.         83 

become  eminent,  or  that  you  should  sufTei 
many  a  blow.  For  there  is  this  fine  circum- 
stance connected  with  the  character  of  a 
Cynic,  that  he  must  be  beaten  like  an  ass, 
and  yet,  when  beaten,  must  love  those  who 
beat  him  as  the  father,  as  the  brother  of  all. 
Arms  and  guards  give  a  power  to  common 
kings  and  tyrants  of  reproving  and  of  pun- 
ishing delinquents,  though  they  be  wicked 
themselves ;  but  to  a  Cynic,  instead  of  arms 
and  guards,  conscience  gives  this  power ; 
when  he  knows  that  he  has  watched  and 
labored  for  mankind ;  that  he  has  slept 
pure,  and  waked  still  purer;  and  that  he 
hath  regulated  all  his  thoughts  as  the  friend, 
as  the  minister  of  the  gods,  as  a  partner  of 
the  empire  of  Zeus  ;  that  he  is  ready  to  say, 
upon  all  occasions,  — 

"Conduct  me,  Zeus,  and  thou,  O  Destiny." 

And,  "  if  it  thus  pleases  the  gods,  thus  let  it 
be.' 


84         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 


CHAPTER  X.     (24.) 

THAT   WE  OUGHT    NOT  TO  BE  AFFECTED   BY 
THINGS   NOT    IN   OUR  OWN  POWER. 

DO  you  now  sit  crying,  because  you  do 
not  see  the  same  people,  nor  live  in  the 
same  place?  Indeed,  you  deserve  to  be 
so  overcome,  and  thus  to  become  more 
wretched  than  ravens  or  crows,  which,  with- 
out groaning  or  longing  for  their  former 
state,  can  fly  where  they  will,  build  their 
nests  in  another  place,  and  cross  the  seas. 

M  Ay,  but  this  happens  from  their  want  of 
reason." 

Was  reason,  then,  given  to  us  by  the 
gods,  for  the  purpose  of  unhappiness  and 
misery,  to  make  us  live  wretched  and  la- 
menting ?  O,  by  all  means,  let  every  one 
be  deathless  !  Let  nobody  go  from  home  ! 
Let  us  never  go  from  home  ourselves, 
but  remain  rooted  to  a  spot,  like  plants  : 
And,  if  any  of  our  acquaintance  should 
quit  his  abode,  let  us  sit  and  cry ;  and, 
when  he  comes  back,  let  us  dance  and 
clap   our   hands   like   children.      Shall    we 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.         85 

never  wean  ourselves,  and  remember  what 
we  have  heard  from  the  philosophers,  — 
unless  we  have  heard  them  only  as  juggling 
enchanters, — that  the  universe  is  one  great 
city,  and  the  substance  one  of  which  it  is 
formed ;  that  there  must  necessarily  be  a 
certain  rotation  of  things ;  that  some  must 
give  way  to  others,  some  be  dissolved,  and 
others  rise  in  their  stead ;  some  remain  in 
the  same  situation,  and  others  be  moved ; 
but  that  all  is  full  of  beloved  ones,  first  of 
the  gods,  and  then  of  men,  by  nature  en- 
deared to  each  other ;  that  some  must  be 
separated,  others  live  together,  rejoicing  in 
the  present,  and  not  grieving  for  the  absent ; 
and  that  man,  besides  a  natural  greatness 
of  mind  and  contempt  of  things  independent 
on  his  own  will, 'is  likewise  formed  not  to  be 
rooted  to  the  earth,  but  to  go  at  different 
times  to  different  places  ;  sometimes  on  ur- 
gent occasions,  and  sometimes  merely  for 
the  sake  of  observation. 

"  Somebody  is  come  from  Rome."  "  I  trust 
no  harm  has  happened."  Why,  what  harm  can 
happen  to  you  where  you  are  not  ?  "  From 
Greece."  —  "  No  harm,  I  hope."  Why,  at 
this  rate,  every  place  may  be  the  cause  of 


86         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

misfortune  to  you.  Is  it  not  enough  for  you 
to  be  unfortunate  where  you  are,  but  it  must 
happen  beyond  sea,  too,  and  by  letters? 
Such  :s  the  security  of  your  condition  ! 

Is  this  what  you  have  heard  from  the 
philosophers  ?  This  what  you  have  learned  ? 
Do  you  not  know  what  sort  of  a  thing  war- 
fare is  ?  One  must  keep  guard,  another  go 
out  for  a  spy,  another  even  to  battle.  It  is 
neither  possible,  nor  indeed  desirable,  that 
all  should  be  in  the  same  place ;  but  you, 
neglecting  to  perform  the  orders  of  your 
general,  complain  whenever  any  thing  a 
little  hard  is  commanded ;  and  do  not  con- 
sider what  influence  you  have  on  the  army, 
so  far  as  lies  in  your  power.  For,  if  all 
should  imitate  you,  nobody  will  dig  a  trench, 
or  throw  up  a  rampart,  or  stand  guard,  or 
expose  himself  to  danger,  but  every  one  will 
appear  useless  to  the  expedition.  Again ; 
if  you  were  a  sailor  in  a  voyage,  suppose 
you  were  to  fix  upon  one  place,  and  there 
remain  ?  If  it  should  be  necessary  to  climb 
the  mast,  refuse  to  do  it;  if  to  run  to  the 
bow  of  the  ship,  refuse  to  do  it.  And  what 
captain  would  tolerate  you  ?  Would  he  not 
throw  you  overboard  as  a  useless  piece  of 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.  87 

goods  and  mere  luggage,  and  a  bad  example 
to  the  other  sailors  ?  Thus,  also,  in  the 
present  case  ;  every  one's  life  is  a  warfare, 
and  that  long  and  various.  You  must  ob- 
serve the  duty  of  a  soldier,  and  perform 
every  thing  at  the  nod  of  your  General,  and 
even,  if  possible,  divine  what  he  would  have 
done.  For  there  is  no  comparison  between 
the  above-mentioned  General  and  this  whom 
you  now  obey,  either  in  power  or  excellence 
of  character. 

Do  you  not  know  that  a  wise  and  good 
man  does  nothing  for  appearance  ;  but  every 
thing  for  the  sake  of  having  acted  well  ? 

"What  advantage  is  it,  then,  to  him,  to 
have  acted  well  ?  " 

What  advantage  is  it  to  one  who  writes 
down  the  name  of  Dion  without  a  blunder  ? 
The  having  written  it. 

"  Is  there  no  reward,  then  ? " 

Why  ;  do  you  seek  any  greater  reward  for 
a  good  man  than  the  doing  what  is  fair  and 
iust  ?  And  yet,  at  Olympia,  you  desire  noth- 
ing else ;  but  think  it  enough  to  be  crowned 
victor.  Does  it  appear  to  you  so  small  and 
worthless  a  thing  to  be  just,  good,  and 
happy  ? 


88        THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

A  wise  and  good  man,  mindful  who  he  is 
and  whence  he  came,  and  by  whom  he  was 
produced,  is  attentive  only  how  he  may  fill 
his  post  regularly  and  dutifully  before  God. 

"  Dost  Thou  wish  me  still  to  live  ?  Let 
me  live  free  and  noble,  as  Thou  desirest; 
for  Thou  hast  made  me  incapable  of  restraint 
in  what  is  my  own.  But  hast  Thou  no  far- 
ther use  for  me  ?  Farewell !  I  have  staid 
thus  long  through  Thee  alone,  and  no  other ; 
and  now  I  depart  in  obedience  to  Thee."  — 
"How  do  you  depart?"  —  "Still  as  Thou 
wilt ;  as  one  free,  as  Thy  servant,  as  one  sensi- 
ble of  Thy  commands  and  Thy  prohibitions. 
But  while  I  am  employed  in  Thy  service, 
what  wouldst  Thou  have  me  to  be?  A 
prince,  or  a  private  man  ;  a  senator,  or  a 
plebeian  ;  a  soldier,  or  a  general  ;  a  pre- 
ceptor, or  a  master  of  a  family  ?  Whatever 
post  or  rank  Thou  shalt  assign  me,  —  like 
Socrates,  I  will  die  a  thousand  times  rather 
than  desert  it.  Where  wouldst  Thou  have 
me  to  be  ?  At  Rome,  or  at  Athens ;  at 
Thebes,  or  at  Gyaros  ? *  Only  remember  me 
there.     If  Thou  shalt  send  me  where  men 

*  An  island  in  the  ^/Egean  Sea,  to  which  the 
Romans  used  to  banish  criminals. 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF   EPICTETUS.        89 

cannot  live  conformably  to  nature,  I  will  not 
depart  unbidden,  but  upon  a  recall  as  it 
were  sounded  by  Thee.  Even,  then,  I  do 
not  desert  Thee ;  Heaven  forbid !  but  I 
perceive  that  Thou  hast  no  use  for  me.  If 
a  life  conformable  to  nature  be  granted,  I 
will  seek  no  other  place  but  that  in  which 
I  am ;  nor  any  other  company  but  those 
with  whom  I  dwell." 

If  you  are  at  Gyaros,  do  not  represent  to 
yourself  the  manner  of  living  at  Rome  ;  how 
many  pleasures  you  used  to  find  there,  and 
how  many  would  attend  your  return  ;  but 
dwell  rather  on  this  point ;  how  he,  who 
must  live  at  Gyaros,  may  live  there  nobly. 
And  if  you  are  at  Rome,  do  not  represent  to 
yourself  the  manner  of  living  at  Athens  ;  but 
consider  only  how  you  ought  to  live  where 
you  are. 

Lastly,  for  all  other  pleasures  substitute 
the  consciousness  that  you  are  obeying  God, 
and  performing  not  in  word,  but  in  deed,  the 
duty  of  a  wise  and  good  man.  How  great 
a  thing  is  it  to  be  able  to  say  to  yourself : 
"  What  others  are  now  solemnly  arguing  in 
the  schools,  and  can  state  in  paradoxes, 
this    I    put   in    practice.      Those    qualities 


90         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

which  are  there  discoursed,  disputed,  cele« 
brated,  I  have  made  mine  own.  Zeus  hath 
been  pleased  to  let  me  recognize  this  within 
myself,  and  himself  to  discern  whether  he 
hath  in  me  one  fit  for  a  soldier  and  a  citizen, 
and  to  employ  me  as  a  witness  to  other 
men,  concerning  things  uncontrollable  by 
will.  See  that  your  fears  were  vain,  your 
appetites  vain.  Seek  not  good  from  with- 
out ;  seek  it  within  yourselves,  or  you  will 
never  find  it.  For  this  reason  he  now 
brings  me  hither,  now  sends  me  thither; 
sets  me  before  mankind,  poor,  powerless, 
sick ;  banishes  me  to  Gyaros ;  leads  me  to 
prison ;  not  that  he  hates  me,  —  Heaven 
forbid  !  For  who  hates  the  most  faithful  of 
his  servants  ?  Nor  that  he  neglects  me,  for 
he  neglects  not  one  of  the  smallest  things ; 
but  to  exercise  me,  and  make  use  of  me  as  a 
witness  to  others.  Appointed  to  such  a 
service,  do  I  still  care  where  I  am,  or  with 
whom,  or  what  is  said  of  me,  —  instead  of 
being  wholly  attentive  to  God  and  to  his 
orders  and  commands  ?  " 

Having  these  principles  always  at  hand, 
and  practising  them  by  yourself,  and  mak- 
ing them  ready  for  use,  you  will  never  want 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.         9 1 

any  one  to  comfort  and  strengthen  you. 
For  shame  does  not  consist  in  having  nothing 
to  eat,  but  in  not  having  wisdom  enough  to 
exempt  you  from  fear  and  sorrow.  But  if 
you  once  acquire  that  exemption,  will  a 
tyrant,  or  his  guards,  or  courtiers,  be  any 
thing  to  you  ?  Will  offices  or  office-seekers 
disturb  you,  who  have  received  so  great  a 
command  from  Zeus?  Only  do  not  make  a 
p?  fade  over  it,  nor  grow  insolent  upon  it. 
B  it  show  it  by  your  actions  ;  and  though  no 
one  else  should  notice  it,  be  content  that  you 
are  well  and  blessed. 


CHAPTER  XI.     (26.) 

CONCERNING   THOSE    WHO    ARE  IN  DREAD 
OF  WANT. 

ARE  not  you  ashamed  to  be  more  fear- 
ful and  mean-spirited  than  fugitive 
slaves  ?  To  what  estates,  to  what  servants, 
do  they  trust,  when  they  run  away  and  leave 
dieir  masters?  Do  they  not,  after  carrying 
off   a   little  with  them    for   the  first   days, 


92         THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

travel  over  land  and  sea,  contriving  first  one, 
then  another  method  of  getting  food  ?  And 
what  fugitive  ever  died  of  hunger  ?  But  you 
tremble,  and  lie  awake  at  night,  for  fear  you 
should  want  necessaries.  Foolish  man  !  are 
you  so  blind  ?  Do  not  you  see  the  way 
whither  the  want  of  necessaries  leads  ? 

"  Why,  whither  does  it  lead  ? " 

Whither  a  fever,  or  a  falling  stone,  may 
lead,  —  to  death.  And  how  often  have  you 
arrogantly  boasted  that  you  are  undisturbed 
by  fears  of  death. 

Sigh,  then,  and  groan  and  eat  in  fear  that 
you  shall  have  no  food  to-morrow.  Trem- 
ble, lest  your  servants  should  rob  you,  or 
run  away  from  you,  or  die.  Thus,  live  on 
for  ever,  whoever  you  are,  who  have  applied 
vourself  to  philosophy  in  name  only,  and  as 
much  as  in  you  lies  have  disgraced  its  prin- 
ciples, by  showing  that  they  are  unprofita- 
ble and  useless  to  those  who  profess  them. 
You  have  never  made  constancy,  tranquillity, 
*nd  serenity  the  object  of  your  desires ; 
nave  sought  no  teacher  for  this  knowledge, 
nut  many  for  mere  syllogisms.  You  have 
never,  by  yourself,  confronted  some  delusive 
semblance  with,  —  "  Can  I  bear  this,  or  can 


THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         93 

I  not  bear  it  ?  What  remains  for  me  to  do  ? " 
But,  as  if  all  your  affairs  went  safe  and  well, 
you  have  aimed  only  to  secure  yourself  in 
your  present  possessions.  What  are  they  ? 
Cowardice,  baseness,  worldliness,  desires  un- 
accomplished, unavailing  aversions.  These 
are  the  things  which  you  have  been  laboring 
to  secure. 

You  tremble,  you  lie  awake  ;  you  advise 
with  everybody,  and  if  the  result  of  the  ad- 
vice does  not  please  everybody,  you  think 
that  you  have  been  ill-advised.  Then  you 
dread  hunger,  as  you  fancy ;  yet,  it  is  not 
hunger  that  you  dread ;  but  you  are  afraid 
that  you  will  not  have  some  one  to  cook  for 
you ;  some  one  else  for  a  butler;  another  to 
pull  off  your  shoes ;  a  fourth  to  dress  you ; 
others  to  rub  you ;  others  to  follow  you ; 
that  when  you  have  undressed  yourself  in 
the  bathing-room,  and  stretched  yourself  out, 
like  a  man  crucified,  you  may  be  rubbed 
here  and  there ;  and  the  attendant  may 
stand  by,  and  say,  "  Come  this  way ;  give 
your  side  ;  take  hold  of  his  head  ;  turn  your 
shoulder  j  "  and  that  when  you  are  returned 
home  from  the  bath  you  may  cry  out,  "  Does 
nobody  bring  any  thing  to  eat  ? "    And  then, 


94  THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

"Take  away;  wipe  the  table."  This  is 
your  dread,  that  you  will  not  be  able  to  lead 
the  life  of  a  sick  man.  But  learn  the  life 
of  those  in  health ;  how  slaves  live,  how 
laborers,  how  those  who  are  genuine  phi- 
losophers. 

Does  any  good  man  fear  that  food  should 
fail  him  ?  It  does  not  fail  the  blind ;  it 
does  not  fail  the  lame.  Shall  it  fail  a  good 
man  ?  Is  God  so  negligent  of  His  own  insti- 
tutions, of  His  servants,  of  His  witnesses, 
whom  alone  He  uses  for  examples  to  the  un- 
instructed,  to  show  that  He  exists,  and  that 
He  administers  the  universe  rightly,  and 
doth  not  neglect  human  affairs  ;  and  that  no 
evil  can  happen  to  a  good  man,  either  living 
or  dead  ?  What,  then,  is  the  case,  when  He 
doth  not  bestow  food?  What  else  than 
that,  like  a  good  general,  He  hath  made  me 
a  signal  of  retreat  ?  I  obey,  I  follow  ;  speak- 
ing well  of  my  Leader,  praising  His  works. 
For  I  came  when  it  seemed  good  to  Him, 
and  again,  when  it  seems  good  to  Him,  I  de- 
part ;  and  in  life  it  was  my  business  to  praise 
God  within  myself  and  to  every  auditor,  and 
to  the  world.  Doth  He  grant  me  but  few 
things  ?     Doth  He  refuse  me  affluence  ?    It 


THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.  95 

is  not  His  pleasure  that  I  should  live  luxuri- 
ously; for  He  did  not  grant  that  even  to 
Hercules,  His  own  son. 

"  But  what  if  I  should  be  sick  ?  " 

It  will  then  be  for  the  best  that  you 
should  be  sick. 

"Who  will  take  care  of  me?" 

God  and  your  friends. 

u  I  shall  lie  in  a  hard  bed." 

But  like  a  man. 

"  I  shall  not  have  a  convenient  room." 

Then  you  will  be  sick  in  an  inconvenient 
one. 

"  Who  will  provide  food  for  me  ? " 

They  who  provide  for  others,  too:  you 
will  be  sick  like  Manes.* 

"  But  what  will  be  the  conclusion  of  my 
sickness  ?     Any  other  than  death  ?  " 

Why,  do  you  not  know,  then,  that  the 
origin  of  all  human  evils,  and  of  baseness 
and  cowardice,  is  not  death ;  but  rather 
the  fear  of  death  ?  Fortify  yourself,  there- 
fore, against  this.  Thither  let  all  your  dis- 
courses, readings,  exercises,  tend.  And  then 
you  will  know  that  thus  alone  are  men  made 
free. 

*  The  name  of  a  slave  of  Diogenea, 


94  THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

"  Take  away  j  wipe  the  table."  This  is 
your  dread,  that  you  will  not  be  able  to  lead 
the  life  of  a  sick  man.  But  learn  the  life 
of  those  in  health ;  how  slaves  live,  how 
laborers,  how  those  who  are  genuine  phi- 
losophers. 

Does  any  good  man  fear  that  food  should 
fail  him  ?  It  does  not  fail  the  blind ;  it 
does  not  fail  the  lame.  Shall  it  fail  a  good 
man  ?  Is  God  so  negligent  of  His  own  insti- 
tutions, of  His  servants,  of  His  witnesses, 
whom  alone  He  uses  for  examples  to  the  un- 
instructed,  to  show  that  He  exists,  and  that 
He  administers  the  universe  rightly,  and 
doth  not  neglect  human  affairs  ;  and  that  no 
evil  can  happen  to  a  good  man,  either  living 
or  dead  ?  What,  then,  is  the  case,  when  He 
doth  not  bestow  food?  What  else  than 
that,  like  a  good  general,  He  hath  made  me 
a  signal  of  retreat  ?  I  obey,  I  follow  ;  speak- 
ing well  of  my  Leader,  praising  His  works. 
For  I  came  when  it  seemed  good  to  Him, 
and  again,  when  it  seems  good  to  Him,  I  de- 
part ;  and  in  life  it  was  my  business  to  praise 
God  within  myself  and  to  every  auditor,  and 
to  the  world.  Doth  He  grant  me  but  few 
things  ?     Doth  He  refuse  me  affluence  ?    It 


THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.  95 

is  not  His  pleasure  that  I  should  live  luxuri- 
ously; for  He  did  not  grant  that  even  to 
Hercules,  His  own  son. 

"  But  what  if  I  should  be  sick  ?  " 

It  will  then  be  for  the  best  that  you 
should  be  sick. 

"Who  will  take  care  of  me?" 

God  and  your  friends. 

"  I  shall  lie  in  a  hard  bed." 

But  like  a  man. 

"  I  shall  not  have  a  convenient  room." 

Then  you  will  be  sick  in  an  inconvenient 
one. 

"  Who  will  provide  food  for  me  ? " 

They  who  provide  for  others,  too:  you 
will  be  sick  like  Manes.* 

"  But  what  will  be  the  conclusion  of  my 
sickness  ?     Any  other  than  death  ?  " 

Why,  do  you  not  know,  then,  that  the 
origin  of  all  human  evils,  and  of  baseness 
and  cowardice,  is  not  death ;  but  rather 
the  fear  of  death  ?  Fortify  yourself,  there- 
fore, against  this.  Thither  let  all  your  dis- 
courses, readings,  exercises,  tend.  And  then 
you  will  know  that  thus  alone  are  men  made 
free. 

*  The  name  of  a  slave  of  Diogenes. 


96         THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 


BOOK  IV. 

CHAPTER    I. 

OF  FREEDOM. 

THE  cause  of  all  human  evils  is  the  not 
being  able  to  apply  general  principles 
to  special  cases.  But  different  people  have 
different  grounds  of  complaint ;  one,  for  in 
stance,  that  he  is  sick.  That  is  not  his 
trouble :  it  is  in  his  principles.  Another, 
that  he  is  poor ;  another,  that  he  has  a 
harsh  father  and  mother;  another,  that  he 
is  not  in  the  good  graces  of  Caesar.  This  is 
nothing  else  but  not  understanding  how  to 
apply  our  principles. 

Do  you  think  freedom  to  be  something 
great  and  noble  and  valuable  ?  "  How 
should  I  not  ?  "  Is  it  possible,  then,  that  he 
who  acquires  any  thing  so  great  and  valuable 
and  noble  should  be  of  an  abject  spirit? 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.         97 

"It  is  not."  Whenever,  then,  you  see  any 
one  subject  to  another,  and  flattering  him 
contrary  to  his  own  opinion,  confidently 
say  that  he  is  not  free ;  and  not  only  when 
he  does  this  for  a  supper,  but  even  if  it  be 
for  a  government,  nay,  a  consulship.  Call 
those,  indeed,  little  slaves  who  act  thus  for 
the  sake  of  little  things  ;  and  call  the  others, 
as  they  deserve,  great  slaves.  And  if  you 
should  hear  him  say,  "  Wretch  that  I  am ! 
what  do  I  suffer?"  call  him  a  slave.  In 
short,  if  you  see  him  wailing,  complaining, 
unprosperous,  call  him  a  slave,  even  in 
purple. 

"  Have'we  so  many  masters,  then  ?  "  We 
have.  For,  prior  to  all  such,  we  have  the 
things  themselves  for  our  masters.  Now 
they  are  many ;  and  it  is  through  these  that 
the  men  who  control  the  things  inevitably 
become  our  masters,  too. 

Have  I  ever  been  restrained  from  what  I 
willed,  or  compelled  against  my  will  ?  In- 
deed, how  is  this  possible  ?  I  have  placed 
my  pursuits  under  the  direction  of  God.  Is 
it  His  will  that  I  should  have  a  fever  ?  It 
is  my  will,  too.  Is  it  His  will  that  I  should 
pursue  any  thing  ?  It  is  my  will,  too.  Is  it 
7 


98         THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

His  will  that  I  should  desire  ?  It  is  my  wil  , 
too.  Is  it  His  will  that  I  should  obtain  any 
thing  ?  It  is  mine,  too.  Is  it  not  His  will  ? 
it  is  not  mine.  Is  it  His  will  that  I  should 
oe  tortured  ?  Then  it  is  my  will  to  be  tort- 
'ired.  Is  it  His  will  that  I  should  die? 
Then  it  is  my  will  to  die. 


CHAPTER  II.    (1.) 

OF  RESIGNATION  TO  THE  WILL  OF  GOD. 

AFTER  you  have  received  all,  and  even 
your  very  self  from  another,  are  you 
angry  with  the  Giver ;  and  do  you  complain 
if  He  takes  any  thing  away  from  you  ?  Who 
are  you ;  and  for  what  purpose  did  you  come  ? 
Was  it  not  He  who  brought  you  here  ?  Was 
it  not  He  who  showed  you  the  light  ?  Hath 
not  He  given  you  companions  ?  Hath  not 
He,  given  you  senses  ?  Hath  not  He  given 
you  reason  ?  And  as  whom  did  He  bring 
you  here  ?  Was  it  not  as  a  mortal  ?  Was  it 
not  as  one  to  live  with  a  little  portion  of 
flesh  upon  earth,  and  to  see  His  administra- 


THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.        99 

tion ;  to  behold  the  spectacle  with  Him, 
and  partake  of  the  festival  for  a  short  time  ? 
After  having  beheld  the  spectacle  and  the 
solemnity,  then,  as  long  as  it  is  permitted 
you,  will  you  not  depart  when  He  leads  you' 
out,  adoring  and  thankful  for  what  you  have 
heard  and  seen  ?  u  No  ;  but  I  would  enjoy 
the  feast  still  longer."  So  would  the  initi- 
ated [in  the  mysteries],  too,  be  longer  in 
their  initiation  ;  so,  perhaps,  would  the  spec- 
tators at  Olympia  see  more  combatants. 
But  the  solemnity  is  over.  Go  away.  De- 
part like  a  grateful  and  modest  person ; 
make  room  for  others.  Others,  too,  must  be 
born  as  you  were ;  and  when  they  are  born 
must  have  a  place,  and  habitations,  and 
necessaries.  But  if  the  first  do  not  give  way, 
what  room  is  there  left  ?  Why  are  you  in- 
satiable, unconscionable  ?  Why  do  you 
crowd  the  world  ? 

"  Ay,  but  I  would  have  my  wife  and  chil- 
dren with  me,  too."  Why,  are  they  yours  ? 
Are  they  not  the  Giver's?  Are  they  not 
His  who  made  you  also?  Will  you  not, 
then,  quit  what  belongs  to  another?  Will 
you  not  yield  to  your  Superior?  "Why, 
then,  did  He  bring  me  into  the  world  upon 


IOO       THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

these  conditions  ? "  Well ;  if  it  is  not  worth 
your  while,  depart.  He  hath  no  need  of  a 
discontented  spectator.  He  wants  such  as 
will  share  the  festival ;  make  part  of  the 
chorus  ;  who  will  extol,  applaud,  celebrate 
the  solemnity.  He  will  not  be  displeased 
to  see  the  wretched  and  fearful  dismissed 
from  it.  For  when  they  were  present  they 
did  not  behave  as  at  a  festival  nor  fill  a 
proper  place,  but  lamented,  found  fault  with 
the  Deity,  with  their  fortune,  with  their  com- 
panionSi  They  were  insensible  both  of  their 
advantages  and  of  the  powers  which  they 
received  for  far  different  purposes ;  the 
powers  of  magnanimity,  nobleness  of  spirit, 
fortitude,  and,  that  which  now  concerns  us, 
freedom.  "For  what  purpose,  then,  have 
I  received  these  things  ? "  To  use  them. 
"  How  long  ? "  As  long  as  He  who  lent 
them  pleases. 

Take  Socrates,  and  consider  him,  who  nad 
a  wife  and  children,  but  held  them  not  as 
lis  own;  had  a  country,  friends,  relations, 
but  held  them  only  so  long  as  it  was  proper, 
and  in  the  manner  that  was  proper ;  sub- 
mitting all  these  to  the  law  and  to  the 
obedience  due  to  it.     Hence,  when  it  was 


THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.       10 1 

Dtoper  to  fight,  he  was  the  first  to  go  out, 
and  exposed  himself  to  danger  without  the 
least  reserve.  But  when  he  was  sent  by  the 
thirty  tyrants  to  apprehend  Leon,  because 
he  esteemed  it  a  base  action,  he  did  not  even 
deliberate  about  it ;  though  he  knew  that, 
jerhaps,  he  might  die  for  it.  But  what  did 
that  signify  to  him  ?  For  it  was  something 
else  that  he  wanted  to  preserve,  not  his 
mere  flesh ;  but  his  fidelity,  his  honor  free 
from  attack  or  subjection.  And  afterwards, 
when  he  was  to  make  a  defence  for  his  life, 
does  he  behave  like  one  having  children  ? 
Or  a  wife  ?  No ;  but  like  a  single  man. 
And  how  does  he  behave,  when  required  to 
drink  the  poison  ?  When  he  might  escape, 
and  Crito  would  have  him  escape  from 
prison  for  the  sake  of  his  children,  what  says 
he?  Does  he  esteem  it  a  fortunate  oppor- 
tunity ?  How  should  he  ?  But  he  considers 
what  is  becoming,  and  neither  sees  nor  re- 
gards any  thing  else.  "  For  I  am  not  desir- 
ous," he  says,  "to  preserve  this  pitiful  body  ; 
but  that  part  which  is  improved  and  pre- 
served by  justice,  and  impaired  and  de- 
stroyed by  injustice.,,  Socrates  is  not  to  be 
basely  preserved.     He  who  refused  to  vote 


102      THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

for  what  the  Athenians  commanded  ;  he  who 
contemned  the  thirty  tyrants ;  he  who  held 
such  discourses  on  virtue  and  moral  beauty, 
—  such  a  man  is  not  to  be  preserved  by  a  base 
action,  but  is  preserved  by  dying,  instead  of 
running  away.  For  even  a  good  actor  is 
preserved  as  such  by  leaving  off  when  he 
ought,  not  by  going  on  to  act  beyond  his 
time.  "What,  then,  will  become  of  your 
children  ?  "  —  "If  I  had  gone  away  into 
Thessaly,  you  would  have  taken  care  of 
them  ;  and  will  there  be  no  one  to  take  care 
of  them  when  I  am  departed  to  Hades  ? " 
You  see  how  he  ridicules  and  plays  with 
death.  But  if  it  had  been  you  or  I,  we 
should  presently  have  proved  by  philosophi- 
cal arguments,  that  those  who  act  unjustly 
are  to  be  repaid  in  their  own  way;  and 
should  have  added,  "  If  I  escape  I  shall  be 
of  use  to  many ;  if  I  die,  to  none."  Nay,  if 
it  had  been  necessary,  we  should  have  crept 
through  a  mouse-hole  to  get  away.  But 
how  should  we  have  been  of  use  to  any? 
For  where  must  they  have  dwelt?  If  we 
were  useful  alive,  should  we  not  be  of  still 
more  use  to  mankind  by  dying  when  we 
ought   and   as   we   ought?     And   now   the 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.       103 

remembrance  of  the  death  of  Socrates  is  not 
less,  but  even  more,  useful  to  the  world  than 
that  of  the  things  which  he  did  and  said 
when  alive. 


CHAPTER   III.    (2,  3.) 

OF  COMPLAISANCE. 

r  fF*0  this  point  you  must  attend  before  all 
■i-  others ;  not  to  be  so  attached  to  any 
one  of  your  former  acquaintances  or  friends 
as  to  condescend  to  behavior  like  his  \  other- 
wise you  will  undo  yourself.  But  if  it  comes 
into  your  head,  "  I  shall  appear  odd  to  him, 
and  he  will  not  treat  me  as  before,"  remem 
ber,  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  had  for 
lothing ;  nor  is  it  possible  that  he  who  acts 
n  the  same  manner  as  before,  should  not  be 
vhe  same  person.  Choose,  then,  whether 
you  will  be  loved  by  those  who  formerly 
loved  you,  and  be  like  your  former  self ;  or 
be  better,  and  not  meet  with  the  same  treat- 
ment. If  you  do  not  drink  with  those  with 
whom  you  used  to  drink,  you  cannot  appear 
equally  agreeable  to  them.     Choose,   then, 


104       THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

whether  you  would  be  a  drunkard,  and 
agreeable  to  them,  —  or  sober,  and  disagree- 
able to  them.  If  you  do  not  sing  with  those 
with  whom  you  used  to  sing,  you  cannot  be 
equally  dear  to  them.  Here,  too,  then, 
choose,  which  you  will.  For  if  it  is  better 
to  be  modest  and  decent  than  to  have  it 
said  of  you,  "  What  an  agreeable  fellow 7" 
give  up  the  rest ;  renounce  it ;  withdraw 
yourself;  have  nothing  to  do  with  it. 

When  you  have  lost  any  thing  external, 
have  always  at  hand  the  consideration  of 
what  you  have  got  instead  of  it ;  and  if  that 
be  of  more  value,  do  not  by  any  means  call 
yourself  a  loser ;  whether  it  be  a  horse  for 
an  ass ;  an  ox  for  a  sheep ;  a  good  action 
for  a  piece  of  money ;  a  due  composure  of 
mind  for  a  dull  jest ;  or  modesty  for  indecent 
talk.  By  continually  remembering  this,  you 
will  preserve  your  character  such  as  it  ought 
to  be. 

Seek  in  all  things  your  own  highest  good, 
—  and  for  other  aims,  recognize  them  as 
far  as  the  case  requires,  and  in  accordance 
with  reason,  contented  with  this  alone. 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS.       105 
CHAPTER    IV.     (4.) 

CONCERNING   THOSE    WHO    DESIRE  A  LIFE 
OF   REPOSE. 

REMEMBER  that  it  is  not  only  the 
desire  of  riches  and  power  that  de- 
bases us  and  subjects  us  to  others,  but  even 
that  of  quiet,  leisure,  learning,  or  travelling. 
Where  is  the  difference  whether  you  say,  "  I 
am  in  a  wretched  way,  I  have  nothing  to  do ; 
but  am  tied  down  to  books,  as  inactive  as  if 
I  were  dead  ;  "  —  or,  "  I  am  in  a  wretched 
way,  I  have  no  leisure  to  read  ? " 

For  as  levees  and  power  are  among  things 
external  and  uncontrollable  by  will,  so,  like- 
wise, is  a  book.  For  what  purpose  would 
you  read  ?  Tell  me.  For  if  you  rest  merely 
in  being  amused  and  learning  something, 
you  are  insignificant  and  miserable.  But  if 
you  refer  it  to  the  proper  end,  what  is  that 
but  a  life  truly  prosperous  ?  And  if  reading 
does  not  procure  you  a  prosperous  life,  of 
what  use  is  it  ?  "  But  it  does  procure  me  a 
prosperous  life  (say  you)  ;  and  therefore  I 
am  uneasy  at  being  deprived  of  it !  "  And 
what  sort  of  prosperity  is  that  which  every 


106      THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS. 

thing  can  hinder;  —  I  do  not  say  Caesar 
alone,  or  Caesar's  friend,  but  a  crow,  a  man 
practising  the  flute,  a  fever,  or  ten  thousand 
other  things  ?  But  nothing  is  so  essential  to 
prosperity  as  that  it  should  be  permanent 
and  unhindered. 

Suppose  I  am  now  called  to  do  something. 
I  now  go,  therefore,  and  will  be  attentive  to 
the  bounds  and  measures  which  ought  to  be 
observed  ;  that  I  may  act  modestly,  steadily, 
and  without  desire  or  aversion  as  to  ex- 
ternals. In  the  next  place.  I  am  attentive 
to  other  men  ;  what  they  say,  and  how  they 
are  moved  ;  and  that  not  from  ill-nature,  nor 
that  I  may  have  an  opportunity  for  censure 
or  ridicule  ;  but  I  turn  to  myself.  "  Am  I 
also  guilty  of  the  same  faults  ;  and  how, 
then,  shall  I  leave  them  off  ? "  or,  "  I  once 
thus  erred,  but,  God  be  thanked,  not  now." 
Well ;  when  you  have  done  thus,  and  been 
employed  on  such  things,  have  you  not  done 
as  good  a  work  as  if  you  had  read  a  thousand 
lines  or  written  as  many  ?  For  are  you  un- 
easy at  not  reading  while  you  are  eating? 
When  you  eat,  or  bathe,  or  exercise,  are  you 
not  satisfied  with  doing  it  in  a  manner  cor- 
responding to  what  you  have  read  ? 


THE    DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.       IOJ 

But  if  we  were  to  read  dissertations  about 
the  exertion  of  our  efforts,  not  merely  to  see 
what  might  be  said  about  our  efforts,  but  to 
exert  them  well  ;  on  desire  and  aversion, 
that  we  might  not  be  disappointed  of  our 
desires,  nor  incur  our  aversions ;  on  the 
duties  of  life,  that,  mindful  of  our  relations, 
we  might  do  nothing  irrational  nor  incon- 
sistent with  them  ;  then  we  should  not  be 
provoked  at  being  hindered  in  our  reading ; 
but  should  be  contented  with  the  perform- 
ance of  actions  suitable  to  us,  and  should 
learn  a  new  standard  of  computation.  Not, 
"To-day  I  have  perused  so  many  lines;  I 
have  written  so  many ; "  but  "  To-day  I  have 
used  my  efforts  as  the  philosophers  direct. 
I  have  restrained  my  desires  absolutely ;  I 
have  applied  my  aversion  only  to  things  con- 
trollable by  will.  I  have  not  been  terrified 
by  such  a  one,  nor  put  out  of  countenance 
by  such  another.  I  have  exercised  my  pa- 
tience, my  abstinence,  my  beneficence." 
And  thus  we  should  thank  God  for  what  we 
ought  to  thank  him. 

But  now  we  resemble  the  crowd  in  another 
way  also,  and  do  not  know  it.  One  is 
afraid  that  he  shall  not  be  in  power;  you. 


108      THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICYETUS. 

that  you  shall.  By  no  means  be  afraid  of  it, 
man  ;  but  as  you  laugh  at  him,  laugh  at 
yourself.  Else  how  can  you  say,  like  So- 
crates, "If  it  so  pleases  God,  so  let  it  be"? 
Do  you  think  that  Socrates,  if  he  had  fixed 
his  desires  on  the  leisure  of  the  lyceum  or  the 
academy,  or  the  conversation  of  the  youth 
there,  day  after  day,  would  have  made  so 
many  campaigns  as  he  did,  so  readily  ? 
Would  he  not  have  lamented  and  groaned  : 
"  How  wretched  am  I !  now  must  I  be  mis- 
erable here,  when  I  might  be  sunning  myself 
in  the  lyceum  ?  "  Was  that  your  business  in 
life,  then,  to  sun  yourself  ?  Was  it  not  to  be 
truly  successful  ?  To  be  unrestrained  and 
free?  And  how  could  he  have  been  Socra- 
tes, if  he  had  lamented  thus  ?  How  could  he 
after  that  have  written  Paeans  in  a  prison  ? 

What  is  it  the  will  of  God  that  I  should  do 
now  ?  What  is  not  His  will  ?  A  little  while 
ago  it  was  His  will  that  you  should  be  at 
leisure,  should  talk  with  yourself,  read,  hear, 
prepare  yourself.  You  have  had  sufficient 
time  for  this.  At  present,  He  says  to  you, 
"  Come  now  to  the  combat.  Show  us  what 
you  have  learned  ;  how  you  have  wrestled." 
Why,  then,  are  you  out  of  humor  ?    There  is 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.        IO9 

no  combat  without  a  tumult.  "  But  I  would 
live  in  quiet."  Why,  then,  lament  and  groan 
as  you  deserve.  For  what  greater  punish- 
ment is  there  to  those  who  are  uninstructed 
and  disobedient  to  the  orders  of  God,  than 
to  grieve,  to  mourn,  to  envy ;  in  short,  to  be 
disappointed  and  unhappy?  Are  you  not 
.villing  to  deliver  yourself  from  all  this? 
"  And  how  shall  I  deliver  myself  ? "  Have 
you  not  heard  that  you  must  absolutely  con- 
trol desire,  and  apply  aversion  to  such  things 
only  as  are  controllable  by  will  ?  That  you 
must  consent  to  resign  all,  body,  possessions, 
fame,  books,  tumults,  power,  exemption  from 
power  ?  For  to  whichsoever  your  disposi- 
tion is,  you  are  a  slave  ;  you  are  under  sub- 
jection ;  you  are  made  liable  to  restraint,  to 
compulsion  ;  you  are  altogether  the  property 
of  others.  But  have  that  maxim  of  Cleanthes 
always  ready,  — 

"  Conduct  me,  Zeus ;  and  thou,  O  Destiny." 

Is  it  your  will  that  I  should  go  to  Rome? 
Conduct  me  to  Rome.  To  Gyaros?  —  To 
Gyaros.  To  Athens?  —  To  Athens.  To 
prison  ?  —  To  prison.  If  you  once  say, 
"  When  may  I  go  to  Athens  ?  "  you  are  un- 
done. 


HO      THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

"  Athens  is  a  fine  place."  But  it  is  a  much 
finer  thing  to  be  happy,  serene,  tranquil, 
not  to  have  your  affairs  dependent  on  others. 

If  you  have  laid  aside  ill-nature  and  re- 
viling ;  if  you  have  lessened  your  harshness, 
indecent  language,  inconsiderateness,  effem- 
inacy ;  if  you  are  not  moved  by  the  same 
things  as  formerly,  or  if  not  in  the  same 
manner  as  formerly ;  —  you  may  keep  a 
perpetual  festival,  to-day  for  success  in  one 
affair,  to-morrow  for  another.  How  much 
better  a  reason  for  sacrifice  is  this  than  ob- 
taining a  consulship  or  a  government? 


CHAPTER  V.     (5.) 

OF    GOOD    WILL  TO  MEN. 

THIS  is  the  point  that  a  wise  and  good 
person  has  in  view.  —  To  have  the 
command  of  an  army  ?  No ;  but  if  it  be 
allotted  him,  to  properly  apply  his  own 
powers  in  that  sphere.  To  marry  ?  No ; 
but  if  marriage  be  allotted  him,  to  act  in 
Jhis  sphere  also,  according  to  the  laws  of 
nature.     But  if  he  expects  perfection  in  his 


.  THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.        Ill 

wife  or  his  child,  then  he  asks  to  have  that  for 
his  own  which  really  belongs  to  others. 
And  wisdom  consists  in  this  very  point,  to 
learn  what  things  are  our  own  and  what  be- 
long to  others. 

Why  do  you  not  make  public  proclama- 
tion that  you  are  at  peace  with  all  mankind, 
however  they  may  act ;  and  that  you  chiefly 
laugh  at  those  who  suppose  they  can  hurt 
you  ?  "  These  wretches  neither  know  who  I 
am,  nor  in  what  consist  my  good  and  evil ; 
nor  how  little  they  can  touch  what  is  really 
mine."  Thus  the  inhabitants  of  a  fortified 
city  laugh  at  the  besiegers.  "What  trouble, 
now,  are  these  people  giving  themselves  for 
nothing?  Our  wall  is  secure  ;  we  have  pro- 
visions for  a  very  long  time,  and  every  other 
preparation."  These  are  what  render  a  city 
fortified  and  impregnable  ;  but  nothing  but 
its  principles  render  the  human  soul  so 
For^what  wall  is  so  strong,  what  body  so  im- 
penetrable, what  possession  so  unalienable, 
what  dignity  so  secured  against  stratagems  ? 
All  things  else,  everywhere  else,  are  mortal, 
easily  reduced ;  and  whoever  in  any  degree 
fixes  his  mind  on  them,  must  necessarily  be 
subject  to  perturbation,  despair,  terrors,  lam- 


112       THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

entations,  disappointed  desires,  and  unavail- 
ing aversions.  And  will  we  not  fortify, 
then,  the  only  citadel  that  is  granted  us  ; 
and,  withdrawing  ourselves  from  what  is 
mortal  and  servile,  diligently  improve  what 
is  immortal  and  by  nature  free  ? 


CHAPTER  VI.    (7,  8,  9.) 

OF  FEARLESSNESS,   AND    HUMILITY. 

WHY  may  not  he  who  discerns  these 
things  live  with  an  easy  and  light 
heart,  quietly  awaiting  whatever  may  happen, 
and  bearing  contentedly  what  has  happened  ? 
Shall  it  be  poverty  ?  Bring  it ;  and  you 
shall  see  what  poverty  is  when  it  is  met  well. 
Would  you  have  power  ?  Bring  toils,  too, 
along  with  it.  Banishment?  Wherever  I 
go,  it  will  be  well  with  me  there  ;  for  it  was 
well  with  me  here,  not  on  account  of  the 
place,  but  of  the  principles  which  I  shall 
carry  away  with  me  ;  for  no  one  can  deprive 
me  of  these  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  alone 
are  my  property,  and  cannot  be  taken  away ; 


THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.        II* 

and  their  possession  suffices  me  wherever  I 
am,  or  whatever  I  do. 

Euphrates  was  in  the  right  to  say,  "  I  long 
endeavored  to  conceal  my  embracing  the 
philosophic  life  ;  and  it  was  of  use  to  me. 
For,  in  the  first  place,  I  knew  that  whatever 
I  did  right  I  did  not  for  spectators,  but  for 
myself.  I  eat  in  a  seemly  manner,  for  my 
own  approbation.  I  preserved  composure 
of  look  and  manner,  all  for  God  and  myself. 
Then,  as  I  contended  alone,  I  alone  was  in 
danger.  Philosophy  was  in  no  danger,  on 
my  doing  any  thing  shameful  or  unbecom- 
ing; nor  did  I  hurt  the  rest  of  the  world, 
which,  by  offending  as  a  philosopher,  I 
might  have  done.  For  this  reason,  those 
who  were  ignorant  of  my  intention,  used  to 
wonder  that  while  I  conversed  and  lived 
entirely  with  philosophers,  I  never  took  up 
the  character.  And  where  was  the  harm, 
that  I  should  be  discovered  to  be  a  philoso- 
pher by  my  actions,  rather  than  by  the  usual 
badges?  See  how  I  eat,  how  I  drink,  how  I 
sleep,  how  I  bear,  how  I  forbear;  how  I 
assist  others  ;  how  I  make  use  of  my  desires, 
how  of  my  aversions.  Judge  of  me  hence, 
if  you  can.'"' 

8 


114      THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

It  was  thus,  too,  that  Socrates  concealed 
himself  from  the  multitude  ;  and  some  even 
came  and  desired  him  to  introduce  them  to 
philosophers.  Was  he  accustomed  to  be 
displeased,  then,  like  us  ;  and  to  say,  What ; 
do  not  you  take  me  for  a  philosopher  ?  No, 
he  took  them  and  introduced  them  ;  con- 
tented with  merely  being  a  philosopher,  and 
rejoicing  in  feeling  no  annoyance,  that  he 
was  not  thought  one. 

Talk  with  yourself,  the  person  who  will 
most  readily  be  persuaded  by  you,  and  with 
whom  no  one  has  greater  weight  than  you. 
And,  in  the  first  place,  condemn  your  ac- 
tions ;  but  when  you  have  condemned  them, 
do  not  despair  of  yourself,  nor  be  like  those 
poor-spirited  people  who,  when  they  have 
once  given  way,  abandon  themselves  entirely, 
and  are  carried  along  as  by  a  torrent.  Tak>; 
example  from  the  wrestling-masters.  Has 
the  boy  fallen  down  ?  Get  up  again,  they 
say  ;  wrestle  again,  till  you  have  acquired 
strength.  Be  you  affected  in  the  same  man- 
ner. For  be  assured  that  there  is  nothing 
more  tractable  than  the  human  mind.  You 
need  but  will,  and  it  is  done,  it  is  set  right; 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.       I  I  5 

as,  on  the  contrary,  you  need  but  nod  over 
the  work,  and  it  is  ruined.  For  both  ruin 
and  recovery  are  from  within. 


CHAPTER  VII.    (10.) 

OF  PREPARATION  FOR  DEATH. 

PRAY,  what  would  Hercules  have  been, 
if  he  had  said,  "  What  can  be  done  to 
prevent  a  great  lion,  or  a  large  boar,  or  sav- 
age men,  from  coming  in  my  way  ? "  Why, 
what  is  that  to  you  ?  If  a  large  boar  should 
come  in  your  way,  you  will  fight  the  greater 
combat ;  if  wicked  men,  you  will  deliver  the 
world  from  wicked  men.  "  But,  then,  if  I 
should  die  by  this  means  ?  "  You  will  die 
as  a  good  man,  in  the  performance  of  a  gal- 
lant action.  For  since,  at  all  events,  one 
must  die,  one  must  necessarily  be  found  do- 
ing something,  either  tilling,  or  digging,  or 
trading,  or  serving  a  consulship,  or  sick  with 
indigestion,  or  dysentery.  At  what  employ- 
ment, then,  would  you  have  death  find  you  ? 
For  my  part,  I  would  have  it  to  be  some  hu- 


Il6      THE   DISCOURSES   OF   EPICTETUS. 

mane,  beneficent,  public-spirited,  noble  ac- 
tion. But  if  I  cannot  be  found  doing  any 
such  great  things,  yet,  at  least,  I  would  be 
doing  what  I  am  incapable  of  being  re- 
strained from,  what  is  given  me  to  do, — 
correcting  myself,  improving  that  faculty 
which  makes  use  of  the  phenomena  of  ex- 
istence to  procure  tranquillity,  and  render  to 
the  several  relations  of  life  their  due  ;  and 
if  I  am  so  fortunate,  advancing  still  further 
to  the  security  of  judging  right.  If  death 
overtakes  me  in  such  a  situation,  it  is  enough 
for  me  if  I  can  stretch  out  my  hands  to  God, 
and  say,  "The  opportunities  which  I  have 
received  from  Thee  of  comprehending  and 
obeying  thy  administration,  I  have  not  neg- 
lected. As  far  as  in  me  lay,  I  have  not  dis- 
honored Thee.  See  how  I  have  used  my 
perceptions  ;  how  my  convictions.  Have  I 
at  any  time  found  fault  with  Thee?  Have  I 
been  discontented  at  Thy  dispensations  ;  or 
wished  them  otherwise  ?  Have  I  trans- 
gressed the  relations  of  life  ?  I  thank  Thee 
that  Thou  hast  brought  me  into  being.  I 
am  satisfied  with  the  time  that  I  have  en- 
joyed the  things  which  Thou  hast  given  me. 
Receive  them    back    again,    and    distribute 


THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS.        117 

them  as  Thou  wilt ;  for  they  were  all  Thine, 
and  Thou  gavest  them  to  me." 

Will  you,  then,  employ  no  expense  and  no 
pains  to  acquire  peace  and  tranquillity,  to 
sleep  sound  while  you  do  sleep,  to  be  thor- 
oughly awake  while  you  are  awake,  to  fear 
nothing,  to  be  anxious  for  nothing  ?  But  if 
any  thing  belonging  to  you  be  lost,  or  idly 
wasted,  while  you  are  thus  engaged,  or  an- 
other gets  what  you  ought  to  have  had,  will 
you  immediately  begin  fretting  at  what  has 
happened  ?  Will  you  compare  the  exchange 
you  have  made  ?  How  much  for  how  much  ? 
But  you  would  have  such  great  things  for 
nothing,  I  suppose.  And  how  can  you? 
Two  trades  cannot  be  combined ;  you  can- 
not bestow  your  care  both  upon  externals, 
and  your  own  ruling  faculty.  But  if  you 
would  have  the  former,  let  the  latter  alone ; 
or  you  will  succeed  in  neither,  while  you  are 
drawn  in  different  ways  by  the  two.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  you  would  have  the  latter,  let 
the  former  alone.  "  The  oil  will  be  spilled, 
the  furniture  will  be  spoiled ; "  but  still  I 
shall  be  free  from  passion.  "  There  will  be 
a  fire  when  I  am  out  of  the  way,  and  the 
books  will  be  destroyed ; "  but  still  I  shall 


I  1  8       THE   DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

make  a  right  use  of  the  phenomena  of  ex- 
istence. "  But  I  shall  have  nothing  to  eat." 
If  I  am  so  unlucky,  dying  is  a  safe  harbor 
That  is  the  harbor  for  all,  death ;  that  is 
the  refuge ;  and  for  that  reason  there  is 
nothing  difficult  in  life.  You  may  go  out 
of  doors  when  you  please,  and  be  troubled 
with  smoke  no  longer. 


CHAPTER   VIII.    (12.) 

OF  TAKING    PAINS. 

WHEN  you  cease  to  take  pains  for  a 
little  while,  do  not  fancy  you  may 
rscommence  whenever  you  please,  but  re- 
member this,  that,  by  means  of  the  fault  of 
to-day,  your  affairs  must  necessarily  be  in  a 
worse  condition  for  the  future.  The  first 
and  worst  evil  is  that  there  arises  a  habit  of 
neglect ;  and  then  a  habit  of  postponing 
effort,  and  constantly  procrastinating  as  to 
one's  successes  and  good  behavior  and  or- 
derly thought  and  action.  .  Now  if  procrasti- 
nation as  to  any  thing  is  advantageous,  it 


THE    DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.        I  1 9 

must  be  still  more  advantageous  to  omit  it 
altogether  ;  but  if  it  be  not  advantageous, 
why  do  you  not  take  pains  all  the  time? 

These  are  the  maxims  we  must  have  ready, 
and  do  nothing  without  them,  but  direct  the 
soul  to  this  mark.  To  pursue  nothing  ex- 
ternal, nothing  that  belongs  to  others,  but  as 
He  who  hath  the  power  hath  appointed. 
Things  controllable  by  will  are  to  be  pur- 
sued always ;  and  the  rest  as  may  be  per- 
mitted. 

Wherever  you  deviate  from  any  of  these 
rules,  the  danger  is  immediate  ;  not  from 
any  thing  external,  but  from  the  very  action 
itself.  "  What,  then,  is  it  possible  by  these  . 
means  to  be  faultless  ?  "  Impracticable  ; 
but  this  is  possible,  to  use  a  constant  en- 
deavor to  be  faultless.  For  we  shall  have 
cause  to  be  satisfied,  if,  by  never  remitting 
our  pains,  we  shall  be  exempt,  at  least,  from 
a  few  faults.  But  now,  when  you  say  you 
will  begin  to  take  pains  to-morrow,  be  as- 
sured that  it  is  the  same  thing  as  if  you  said, 
"To-day  I  will  be  shameless,  impertinent, 
base,  it  shall  be  in  the  power  of  others  to 
grieve  me  ;  I  will  be  passionate,  I  will  be 
envious  to-day."    See  to  how  many  evils  you 


120       THE    DISCOURSES    OF    EPICTETUS. 

give  yourself  up.  "  But  all  will  be  well  to- 
morrow." How  much  better  to-day  ?  If  it 
be  for  your  interest  to-morrow,  how  much 
more  to-day,  that  it  may  be  in  your  power 
to-morrow  too,  and  that  you  may  not  again 
defer  it  until  the  third  day. 


CHAPTER   IX.     (13.) 

OF  BEING   COMMUNICATIVE. 

WHEN  any  one  appears  to  us  to  dis- 
course frankly  of  his  own  affairs, 
we,  too,  are  somehow  tempted  to  disclose 
our  secrets  to  him  ;  and  we  consider  this  to 
be  acting  with  frankness.  But  when  one 
has  safely  intrusted  his  secrets  to  me,  shall 
I,  in  imitation  of  him,  trust  mine  to  any  one 
who  comes  in  my  way  ?  "  Ay  ;  but  it  is  un- 
fair, when  you  have  heard  the  secrets  of 
your  neighbor,  not  to  communicate  any  thing 
to  him  in  return." 

Why,  did  I  ask  you  to  do  it,  sir?  Did 
you  tell  me  your  affairs  on  condition  that 
I  should  tell  you  mine  in  return?     This  is 


THE   DISCOURSES   OF    EPICTETUS.       121 

just  as  if  I  had  a  sound  barrel,  and  you 
a  leaky  one ;  and  you  should  come  and  de- 
posit your  fvine  with  me,  to  be  put  into  my 
barrel ;  and  then  should  take  it  ill,  that,  in 
my  turn,  I  did  not  trust  you  with  my  wine, 
No.  You  have  a  leaky  barrel.  How,  then, 
are  we  any  longer  upon  equal  terms  ? 


®be  3£ndjtrtlitoit,  or  JBanuaL 


THERE  are  things  which  are  within  our 
power,  and  there  are  things  which  are 
beyond  our  power.  Within  our  power  are 
opinion,  aim,  desire,  aversion,  and,  in  one 
word,  whatever  affairs  are  our  own.  Beyond 
our  power  are  body,  property,  reputation, 
office,  and,  in  one  word,  whatever  are  not 
properly  our  own  affairs. 

Now  the  things  within  our  power  are  by 
nature  free,  unrestricted,  unhindered ;  but 
those  beyond  our  power  are  weak,  depend- 
ent, restricted,  alien.  Remember,  then, 
that  if  you  attribute  freedom  to  things  by 
nature  dependent,  and  take  what  belongs  to 
others  for  your  own,  you  will  be  hindered, 
you  will  lament ;  you  will  be  disturbed,  you 
will  find  fault  both  with  Gods  and  men. 
But  if  you  take  for  your  own  only  that  which 


THE    ENCHIRIDION.  123 

is  your  own,  and  view  what  belongs  to  others 
just  as  it  really  is,  then  no  one  will  ever  compel 
you,  no  one  will  restrict  you,  you  will  find 
fault  with  no  one,  you  will  accuse  no  one, 
you  will  do  nothing  against  your  will  \  no 
one  will  hurt  you,  you  will  not  have  an 
enemy,  nor  will  you  suffer  any  harm. 

Aiming,  therefore,  at  such  great  things, 
remember  that  you  must  not  allow  yourself 
any  inclination,  however  slight,  towards  the 
attainment  of  the  others  ;  but  that  you  must 
entirely  quit  some  of  them,  and  for  the 
present  postpone  the  rest.  But  if  you 
would  have  these,  and  possess  power  and 
wealth  likewise,  you  may  miss  the  latter  in 
seeking  the  former;  and  you  will  certainly 
fail  of  that  by  which  alone  happiness  and 
freedom  are  procured. 


II. 


Where  it  is  practically  necessary  for  you 
to  pursue  or  avoid  any  thing,  do  even  this 
with  discretion,  and  gentleness,  and  moder- 
ation. 


124  THE   ENCHIRIDION. 

III. 

With  regard  to  whatever  objects  either  de- 
light the  mind,  or  contribute  to  use,  or  are 
tenderly  beloved,  remind  yourself  of  what 
nature  they  are  ;  beginning  with  the  meiest 
trifles :  if  you  have  a  favorite  cup,  that  it  is 
a  cup  of  which  you  are  fond ;  for  thus,  if  it 
is  broken,  you  can  bear  it ;  if  you  embrace 
your  child  or  your  wife,  that  you  embrace 
a  mortal  ;  and  thus,  if  either  of  them  d7'es, 
you  can  bear  it. 

IV. 

When  you  set  about  any  action,  remind 
yourself  of  what  nature  the  action  is.  If  you 
are  going  to  bathe,  represent  to  yourself  the 
incidents  usual  in  the  bath ;  some  persons 
pouring  out,  others  pushing  in,  others  scold- 
ing, others  pilfering.  And  thus,  you  will 
more  safely  go  about  this  action,  if  you  say 
to  yourself,  "  I  will  now  go  to  bathe,  and 
keep  my  own  will  in  harmony  with  nature." 
And  so  with  regard  to  every  other  action. 
For  thus,  if  any  impediment  arises  in  bath- 
ing, you  will  be  able  to  say,  "  It  was  not  only 


THE    ENCHIRIDION.  125 

to  bathe  that  I  desired,  but  to  keep  my 
will  in  harmony  with  nature ;  and  I  shall 
not  keep  it  thus,  if  I  am  out  of  humor  at 
tilings  which  happen." 


Men  are  disturbed  not  by  things,  but  by 
the  views  which  they  take  of  things.  Thus, 
death  is  nothing  terrible,  else  it  would  have 
appeared  so  to  Socrates.  But  the  terror 
consists  in  our  notion  of  death,  that  it  is 
terrible.  When,  therefore,  we  are  hindered, 
or  disturbed,  or  grieved,  let  us  never  impute 
it  to  others,  but  to  ourselves  ;  that  is,  to  our 
own  views.  It  is  the  action  of  an  uninstructed 
person  to  reproach  others  for  his  own  mis- 
fortunes ;  of  one  entering  upon  instruction, 
to  reproach  himself ;  and  of  one  perfectly 
instructed,  to  reproach  neither  others  nor 
himself. 

VI.     (vm.) 

Demand  not  that  events  should  happen 
as  you  wish ;  but  wish  them  to  happen  as 
they  do  happen,  and  you  will  go  on  well. 


126  THE   ENCHIRIDION. 

VII.       (XI.) 

Never  say  of  any  thing,  "  I  have  lost  it ; " 
but,  "  I  have  restored  it."  Has  your  child 
died?  It  is  restored.  Has  your  wife  died ? 
She  is  restored.  Has  your  estate  been 
taken  away  ?  That,  likewise,  is  restored. 
"  But  it  was  a  bad  man  who  took  it."  What 
is  it  to  you,  by  whose  hands  He  who  gave  it 
hath  demanded  it  again  ?  While  He  permits 
you  to  possess  it,  hold  it  as  something  not 
your  own ;  as  do  travellers  at  an  inn. 


VIII.     (xn.) 

If  you  would  improve,  lay  aside  such  rea- 
sonings as  these.  "If  I  neglect  my  affairs, 
I  shall  not  have  a  maintenance ;  if  I  do  not 
punish  my  servant,  he  will  be  good  for 
nothing."  For  it  were  better  to  die  of 
hunger,  exempt  from  grief  and  fear,  than  to 
live  in  affluence  with  perturbation ;  and  it  is 
better  that  your  servant  should  be  bad  than 
you  unhappy. 

Begin,  therefore,  with  little  things.  Is  it  a 
little  oil  spilt  or  a  little  wine  stolen  ?     Say 


THE    ENCHIRIDION.  127 

to  yourself,  "  This  is  the  price  paid  for  peace 
and  tranquillity ;  and  nothing  is  to  be  had 
for  nothing."  And  when  you  call  your  ser- 
vant, consider  that  it  is  possible  he  may  not 
come  at  your  call ;  or,  if  he  does,  that  he 
may  not  do  what  you  wish.  But  it  is  not  at 
all  desirable  for  him,  and  very  undesirable 
for  you,  that  it  should  be  in  his  power  to 
cause  you  any  disturbance. 


IX.     (xiii.) 

If  you  would  improve,  be  content  to  be 
thought  foolish  and  dull  with  regard  to  ex- 
ternals. Do  not  desire  to  be  thought  to 
know  any  thing ;  and  though  you  should 
appear  to  others  to  be  somebody,  distrust 
yourself. 

X.     (xv.) 

Remember  that  you  must  behave  as  at  a 
banquet.  Is  any  thing  brought  round  to 
you  ?  Put  out  your  hand,  and  take  a  moder- 
ate share.  Does  it  pass  by  you?  Do  not 
stop  it.  Is  it  not  yet  come  ?  Do  not  yearn 
in  desire  towards  it,  but  wait  till  it  reaches 


128  THE    ENCHIRIDION. 

you.  So,  with  regard  to  children,  wife,  of- 
fice, riches ;  and  you  will  some  time  or 
other,  be  worthy  to  feast  with  the  Gods. 
And  if  you  do  not  so  much  as  take  the 
things  which  are  set  before  you,  but  are  able 
even  to  forego  them,  then  you  will  not  only 
be  worthy  to  feast  with  the  Gods,  but  to  rule 
with  them  also.  For,  by  thus  doing,  Diog- 
enes and  Heraclitus,  and  others  like  them, 
deservedly  became  divine,  and  were  so 
recognized. 

XL     (xvi.) 

When  you  see  any  one  weeping  for  grief, 
either  that  his  son  has  gone  abroad,  or  that 
he  has  suffered  in  his  affairs,  take  care  not 
to  be  overcome  by  the  apparent  evil.  But 
discriminate,  and  be  ready  to  say,  "  What 
hurts  this  man  is  not  this  occurrence  itself, 
for  another  man  might  not  be  hurt  by  it ; 
but  the  view  he  chooses  to  take  of  it."  As 
far  as  conversation  goes,  however,  do  not 
disdain  to  accommodate  yourself  to  him,  and, 
if  need  be,  to  groan  with  him.  Take  heed, 
however,  not  to  groan  inwardly,  too. 


THE   ENCHIRIDION.  129 

XII.  (XVII.) 

Remember  that  you  are  an  actor  in  a 
drama  of  such  sort  as  the  author  chooses.* 
If  short,  then  in  a  short  one ;  if  long,  then 
in  a  long  one.  If  it  be  his  pleasure  that  you 
should  act  a  poor  man,  see  that  you  act 
it  well ;  or  a  cripple,  or  a  ruler,  or  a  private 
citizen.  For  this  is  your  business,  to  act 
well  the  given  part ;  but  to  choose  it,  belongs 
to  another. 

XIII.  (xx.) 

Remember  that  it  is  not  he  who  gives 
abuse  or  blows  who  affronts ;  but  the  view 
we  take  of  these  things  as  insulting.  When, 
therefore,  any  one  provokes  you,  be  assured 
that  it  is  your  own  opinion  which  provokes 
you.  Try,  therefore,  in  the  first  place,  not 
to  be  bewildered  by  appearances.  For  if 
you  once  gain  time  and  respite,  you  will 
more  easily  command  yourself. 

XIV.  (xxi.) 

Let  death,  and  exile,  and  all  other  things 
which  appear  terrible,  be  daily  before  your 
9 


130  THE   ENCHIRIDION. 

eyes,  but  death  chiefly;  and  you  will 
never  entertain  any  abject  thought,  nor 
too  eagerly  covet  any  thing. 


XV.     (xxiii.) 

If  you  ever  happen  to  turn  your  attention 
to  externals,  for  the  pleasure  of  any  one,  be 
assured  that  you  have  ruined  your  scheme 
of  life.  Be  contented,  then,  in  every  thing, 
with  being  a  philosopher ;  and,  if  you  wish 
to  seem  so  likewise  to  any  one,  appear  so  to 
yourself,  and  it  will  suffice  you. 


XVI.    (xxv.) 

Is  any  one  preferred  before  you  at  an  en- 
tertainment, or  in  courtesies,  or  in  confiden- 
tial intercourse?  If  these  things  are  good, 
you  ought  to  rejoice  that  he  has  them ;  and 
if  they  are  evil,  do  not  be  grieved  that  you 
have  them  not.  And  remember  that  you 
cannot  be  permitted  to  rival  others  in  ex- 
ternals, without  using  the  same  means  to  ob- 
tain them.  For  how  can  he  who  will  not 
haunt  the  door  of  any  man,  will  not  attend 


THE   ENCHIRIDION.  I3I 

him,  will  not  praise  him,  have  an  equal 
share  with  him  who  does  these  things.  You 
are  unjust,  then,  and  unreasonable,  if  you 
are  unwilling  to  pay  the  price  for  which 
these  things  are  sold,  and  would  have 
them  for  nothing.  For  how  much  are  let- 
tuces sold  ?  An  obolus,  for  instance.  If  an- 
other, then,  paying  an  obolus  takes  the 
lettuces,  and  you,  not  paying  it,  go  without 
them,  do  not  imagine  that  he  has  gained 
any  advantage  over  you.  For  as  he  has 
the  lettuces  so  you  have  the  obolus  which 
you  did  not  give. 


XVII.     (xxvi.) 

The  will  of  Nature  may  be  learned  from 
things  upon  which  we  are  all  agreed.  As, 
when  our  neighbor's  boy  has  broken  a  cup, 
or  the  like,  we  are  ready  at  once  to  say, 
fc  These  are  casualties  that  will  happen.'' 
Be  assured,  then,  that  when  your  own  cup 
is  likewise  broken,  you  ought  to  be  affected 
just  as  when  another's  cup  was  broken. 
Now  apply  this  to  greater  things.  Is  the 
child  or  wife  of  another  dead  ?     There  is  no 


132  THE    ENCHIRIDION. 

one  who  would  not  say,  "  This  is  an  accident 
of  mortality."  But  if  any  one's  own  child 
happens  to  die,  it  is  immediately,  "  Alas ! 
how  wretched  am  I ! "  It  should  be  always 
remembered  how  we  are  affected  on  hearing 
the  same  thing  concerning  others. 


XVIII.     (xxvu.) 

As  a  mark  is  not  set  up  for  the  sake  ot 
missing  the  aim,  so  neither  does  the  nature 
of  evil  exist  in  the  world. 


XIX.     (xxxi.) 

Be  assured  that  the  essence  of  piety  to- 
wards the  Gods  lies  in  this,  to  form  right 
opinions  concerning  them  as  existing,  and 
as  governing  the  universe  justly  and  well. 
And  fix  yourself  in  this  resolution,  to  obey 
them,  and  yield  to  them,  and  willingly  follow 
them  amidst  all  events,  as  being  ruled  by 
the  most  perfect  wisdom.  For  thus,  you 
will  never  find  fault  with  the  Gods,  nor  ac- 
cuse them  of  neglecting  you.  And  it  is  not 
possible  for  this  to  be  effected  in  any  othei 


THE    ENCHIRIDION.  133 

way,  than  by  withdrawing  yourself  from 
things  which  are  not  within  our  own  power, 
and  by  making  good  or  evil  to  consist  only 
in  those  which  are.  For,  if  you  suppose  any 
other  things  to  be  good  or  evil,  it  is  inevita- 
ble that,  when  you  are  disappointed  of  what 
you  wish,  or  incur  what  you  would  avoid,  you 
should  reproach  and  blame  their  authors. 


XX.    (xxxm.) 

Begin  by  prescribing  to  yourself  some 
character  and  demeanor,  such  as  you  may 
preserve  both  alone  and  in  company. 

Be  mostly  silent ;  or  speak  merely  what 
is  needful,  and  in  few  words.  We  may, 
however,  enter  sparingly  into  discourse  some- 
times, when  occasion  calls  for  it ;  but  let  it 
not  run  on  any  of  the  common  subjects,  as 
gladiators,  or  horse-races,  or  athletic  cham- 
pions, or  food,  or  drink,  —  the  vulgar  topics 
of  conyersation  ;  and  especially  not  on  men, 
so  as  either  to  blame,  or  praise,  or  make 
comparisons.  If  you  are  able,  then,  by  your 
own  conversation,  bring  over  that  of  your 
company  to  proper  subjects  ;  but  if  you  hap- 


134  THE   ENCHIRIDION. 

pen  to  find  yourself  among  strangers,  be 
silent. 

Let  not  your  laughter  be  loud,  frequent, 
or  abundant. 

Provide  things  relating  to  the  body  no 
farther  than  absolute  need  requires ;  as 
meat,  drink,  clothing,  house,  retinue.  But 
cut  off  every  thing  that  looks  towards  show 
and  luxury. 

If  any  one  tells  you  that  such  a  person 
speaks  ill  of  you,  do  not  make  excuses  about 
what  is  said  of  you,  but  answer,  "  He  was 
ignorant  of  my  other  faults,  else  he  would 
not  have  mentioned  these  alone." 

When  you  are  going  to  confer  with  any 
one,  and  especially  with  one  who  seems 
your  superior,  represent  to  yourself  how 
Socrates  or  Zeno  would  behave  in  such  a 
case,  and  you  will  not  be  at  a  loss  to  meet 
properly  whatever  may  occur. 

In  society,  avoid  a  frequent  and  excessive 
mention  of  your  own  actions  and  dangers. 
For  however  agreeable  it  may  be  to  your- 
self to  allude  to  the  risks  you  have  run,  it  is 
not  equally  agreeable  to  others  to  hear  your 
adventures.  Avoid,  likewise,  an  endeavor 
to   excite   laughter.     For  this  may  readily 


THE    ENCHIRIDION.  135 

slide  you  into  vulgarity.  Approaches  to  in- 
decent discourse  are  likewise  dangerous. 
Therefore  when  any  thing  of  this  sort  hap- 
pens, use  the  first  fit  opportunity  to  rebuke 
him  who  makes  advances ;  or,  at  least,  by 
silence  and  blushing  and  a  serious  look, 
show  yourself  to  be  displeased  by  such  talk. 

XXI.     (xxxv.) 

When  you  do  any  thing  from  a  clear 
judgment  that  it  ought  to  be  done,  never 
shrink  from  being  seen  to  do  it,  even 
though  the  world  should  misunderstand  it ; 
for,  if  you  are  not  acting  rightly,  shun  the 
action  itself ;  if  you  are,  why  fear  those 
who  wrongly  censure  you  ? 

XXII.     (xliii.) 

Every  thing  has  two  handles :  one  by 
.vhich  it  may  be  borne ;  another  by  which 
it  cannot.  If  your  brother  acts  unjustly, 
do  not  lay  hold  on  the  affair  by  the  handle 
of  his  injustice ;  for  by  that  it  cannot  be 
borne :  but  rather  by  the  opposite,  that  he  is 
your  brother,  that  he  was  brought  up  with 
you;  and  thus,  you  will  lay  hold  on  it 
as  it  is  to  be  borne. 


I38  THE    ENCHIRIDION. 

gard  what  any  one  says  of  you;  for  this, 
after  all,  is  no  concern  of  yours. 

Let  whatever  appears  to  be  the  best,  be  to 
you  an  inviolable  law.  And  if  any  instance 
of  pain  or  pleasure,  glory  or  disgrace,  be  set 
before  you,  remember  that  now  is  the  com- 
bat, now  the  Olympiad  comes  on,  nor  can  it 
be  put  off ;  and  that  by  one  failure  and  de- 
feat, honor  may  be  lost  —  or  won.  Thus, 
Socrates  became  perfect,  improving  himself 
by  every  thing;  following  reason.  And 
though  you  are  not  yet  a  Socrates,  you 
ought,  however,  to  live  as  one  seeking 
to  be  a  Socrates. 


XXVII.    (lii.) 

Upon   all    occasions   we   ought  to  have 
these  maxims  ready  at  hand:  — 

u  Conduct  me,  Zeus,  and  thou,  O  Destiny, 
Wherever  your  decrees  have  fixed  my  lot. 
I  follow  cheerfully  ;  and,  did  I  not, 
Wicked  and  wretched  I  must  follow  still."  * 

"  Whoe'er  yields  properly  to  Fate  is  deemed 
Wise  among  men,  and  knows  the  laws  of  Heaven."  1 

*  Cleanthes.         t  Euripides ;  Fragments. 


THE    ENCHIRIDION.  139 

And  this  third :  — 

"O  Crito,  if  it  thus  pleases  the  gods,  thus  let  it 
be."  "Aiytus  and  Melitus  may  kill  me,  indeed; 
but  hurt  me  they  cannot."  * 

*  Plato,  in  Crito  and  Apology. 


JFragmrats  of  (Eptctetug* 

FROM 

StOBjEUS,    ANTONIUS,    AND    MaXIMUS.* 

I.  (VIII.) 

IF  you  would  live  tranquil  and  contented, 
endeavor  that  all  who  live  with  you  may 
be  good.  And  you  can  have  them  good  by 
instructing  the  willing  and  dismissing  the 
unwilling.  For  sin  and  bondage  will  fly  with 
those  who  leave  you,  and  with  those  who  re- 
main with  you  will  virtue  and  liberty  be  left. 

II.  (XII.) 

When  we  are  invited  to  an  entertainment, 
we  take  what  we  find  ;  and  if  any  one  should 
bid  the  master  of  the  house  set  fish  or  tarts 

*  Stobaeus  lived  early  in  the  fifth  century,  Max- 
imus  in  the  seventh,  and  Antonius  in  the  eighth. 
Their  collections  are  printed  together.  Many  of 
these  sayings  are  merely  traditional. 


FRAGMENTS.  I4I 

before  him,  he  would  be  thought  absurd. 
Yet  in  the  world  we  ask  the  Gods  for  what 
they  do  not  give  us ;  and  that,  though  there 
are  so  many  things  which  they  have  given  us 

III.     (xvi.) 

Examine  yourself,  whether  you  had  rathei 
be  rich  or  happy;  and,  if  rich,  be  assured 
that  this  is  neither  a  good,  nor  altogether  in 
your  own  power ;  but,  if  happy,  that  this  is 
both  a  good,  and  in  your  own  power ;  since 
the  one  is  a  temporary  loan  of  Fortune,  and 
the  other  depends  on  will. 

IV.  (xx.) 

If  you  were  born  in  Persia,  you  would  not 
endeavor  to  live  in  Greece  ;  but  to  be  happy 
in  the  place  where  you  were.  Why,  then, 
if  you  are  born  in  poverty,  do  you  yearn  to 
be  rich,  and  not  rather  to  be  happy  in  the 
condition  where  you  are  ? 

V.  (xxi.) 

As  it  is  better  to  lie  straitened  for  room 
upon  a  little  couch,  in  health,  than  to  toss 


142  FRAGMENTS. 

upon  a  wide  bed  in  sickness,  so  it  is  better 
to  contract  yourself  within  the  compass  of  a 
small  fortune,  and  be  happy,  than  to  have  a 
great  one  and  be  wretched. 


VI.    (xxv.) 

Let  the  first  satisfaction  of  appetite  be 
always  the  measure  to  you  of  eating  and 
drinking  ;  and  appetite  itself  the  sauce  and 
the  pleasure.  Thus,  you  will  never  take 
more  than  is  necessary,  nor  will  you  want 
cooks ;  and  you  will  be  contented  with  what- 
ever drink  falls  in  your  way. 


VII.     (xxx.) 

It  would  be  best  if,  both  while  you  are 
personally  making  your  preparations  and 
while  you  are  feasting  at  table,  you  could 
give  among  the  servants  part  of  what  is  be- 
fore you.  But  if  such  a  thing  be  difficult  at 
that  time,  remember  that  you,  who  are  not 
weary,  are  attended  by  those  who  are ;  you, 
who  are  eating  and  drinking,  by  those  who 
are  not ;  you,  who  are  talking,  by  those  who 


FRAGMENTS.  143 

are  silent ;  you,  who  are  at  case,  by  those 
who  are  under  constraint;  and  thus  you 
will  never  be  heated  into  any  unreasona- 
ble passion  yourself,  nor  do  any  mischief 
by  provoking  another. 


VIII.    (xxxv.) 

If  you  seek  truth,  you  will  not  seek 
merely  victory  at  all  hazards ;  and,  when 
you  have  found  truth,  you  will  have  a 
security  against  being  conquered. 


IX.     (xxxviii.) 

What  you  avoid  suffering  yourself,  seek 
not  to  impose  on  others.  You  avoid  slavery, 
for  instance ;  take  care  not  to  enslave. 
For  if  you  can  bear  to  exact  slavery  from 
oihers,  you  appear  to  have  been  yourself 
a  slave.  For  vice  has  nothing  in  common 
with  virtue,  nor  freedom  with  slavery.  As 
a  person  in  health  would  not  wish  to  be 
attended  by  the  sick,  nor  to  have  those  who 
live  with  him  in  a  state  of  sickness ;  so 
neither  would  a  person  who  is  free  bear  to 


144  FRAGMENTS. 

be  served  by  slaves,  nor  to  have  those  who 
live  with  him  in  a  state  of  slavery. 

X.  (xli.) 

Do  not  hang  your  house  round  with  tablets 
and  pictures  ;  but  adorn  it  with  virtue.  Foi 
those  are  merely  foreign  and  a  fading  decep- 
tion of  the  eyes ;  but  this,  a  congenial  and  in- 
delible and  perpetual  ornament  to  the  house. 

XI.  (lii.) 

Diogenes  affirmed  no  labor  to  be  good, 
unless  the  end  were  a  due  state  and  tone  of 
the  soul,  and  not  of  the  body. 


XII.     (lvii.) 

You  will  commit  the  fewest  faults  in  judg- 
ing, if  you  are  faultless  in  your  own  life. 


XIII.    (lxv.) 

It  is  the  character  of  the  most  mean 
spirited  and  foolish  men,  to  suppose  that  they 


FRAGMENTS.  145 

shall  be  despised  by  others,  unless  they  some- 
how strike  the  first  blow  at  their  enemies. 


XIV.  (lxvi.) 

When  you  are  going  to  attack  any  one 
with  vehemence  and  threatening,  remem- 
ber to  say  first  to  yourself,  that  you  are 
constituted  gentle,  and  that,  by  doing  noth- 
ing violent,  you  will  live  without  the  need 
of  repentance,  and  irreproachable. 

XV.  (lxxvi.) 

You  will  confer  the  greatest  benefits  on 
your  city,  not  by  raising  its  roofs,  but  by 
exalting  its  souls.  For  it  is  better  that 
great  souls  should  live  in  small  habita- 
tions, than  that  abject  slaves  should  bur- 
row in  great  houses. 


XVI.    (lxxxiii.) 

As  the  sun  waits  not  for  prayers  and  in- 
cantations to  be  prevailed  on  to  rise,  but  im- 
mediately shines  forth,  and  is  received  with 


14-6  FRAGMENTS. 

universal  salutation ;  so,  neither  do  you  wait 
for  applauses  and  shouts  and  praises  in  order 
to  do  good ;  but  be  a  voluntary  benefactor, 
and  you  will  be  beloved  like  the  sun. 


XVII.     (lxxxiv.) 

A  ship  ought  not  to  be  held  by  one  anchor, 
nor  life  by  a  single  hope. 


XVIII.     (xcii.) 

When  we  are  children,  our  parents  deliver 
us  to  the  care  of  a  tutor ;  who  is  continually 
to  watch  over  us  that  we  get  no  hurt.  When 
we  are  become  men,  God  delivers  us  to  the 
guardianship  of  an  implanted  conscience. 
We  ought  by  no  means,  then,  to  despise  this 
guardian ;  for  it  will  both  displease  God,  and 
we  shall  be  enemies  to  our  own  conscience. 


XIX.     (xcv.) 

What  ought  not  to  be  done,  do  not  even 
think  of  doing. 


FRAGMENTS.  147 

XX.       (XCVI.) 

Deliberate  much  before  you  speak  or  act ; 
for  what  is  once  said  or  done  you  cannot 
recall. 

XXI.    (en.) 

It  is  better  to  advise  than  reproach ;  for 
the  one  is  mild  and  friendly,  the  other  stern 
and  severe;  the  one  corrects  the  erring, 
the  other  only  convicts  them. 


XXII.     (cvm.) 

Choose  rather  to  punish  your  appetites 
than  to  be  punished  by  them. 


XXIII.  (cix.) 

No  one  is  free  who  commands  not  himself, 

XXIV.  (cxiv.) 

Think  of  God  often er  than  you  breathe. 


I48  FRAGMENTS. 

XXV.      (CXV.) 

If  you  always  remember  that  God  stands 
by  as  a  witness  of  whatever  you  do,  either 
in  soul  or  body,  you  will  never  err,  either 
in  your  prayers  or  actions,  and  you  will 
have  God  abiding  with  you. 

XXVI.     (cxxiv.) 

He  is  a  man  of  sense  who  does  not 
grieve  for  what  he  has  not,  but  rejoices 
in  what  he  has. 

XXVII.  (cxxvi.) 

Let  no  wise  man  estrange  himself  from 
the  government  of  the  state ;  for  it  is  both 
wicked  to  withdraw  from  being  useful  to  the 
needy,  and  cowardly  to  give  way  to  the 
worthless.  For  it  is  foolish  to  choose  rather 
to  be  governed  ill  than  to  govern  well, 

XXVIII.  (cxxx.) 

He  who  is  discontented  with  things  pres- 
ent and  allotted,  is  unskilled  in  life.     But 


FRAGMENTS.  1 49 

he  who  bears  them,  and  the  consequences 
arising  from  them,  nobly  and  rationally,  is 
worthy  to  be  esteemed  a  good  man. 


The    following   Fragments   are  ascribed 
jointly  to  Epictetus  and  other  authors:  — 

I.    (m) 

CHOOSE  the  best  life;  for  habit  will 
make  it  pleasant. 


II.    (xv.) 

He  who  cultivates  wisdom  cultivates  the 
knowledge  of  God. 

III.     (XIX.) 

We  ought  to  do  well  by  our  friends 
when  they  are  present;  and  speak  well  of 
them,  when  they  are  absent 


ISO  FRAGMENTS. 

IV.    (xx.) 

Let  him  not  think  himself  loved  by  any, 
who  loves  none. 


V.    (xxn.) 

If  you  would  lead  a  life  without  sorrow, 
regard  things  which  will  happen,  as  if  they 
had  already  happened. 


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